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V 


THE 

STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


BY 

l/ 

CAPT. MOWBRAY THOMSON, 

BENGAL ARMY. 

ONE of the ONLY TWO SURVIVORS from the CAWNPORE GARRISON. 




LONDON: 

t 

RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, 
^nhlxtytx hr <$rbiirarg *0 fjur pajrsig. 

1859 . 


The Right of Translation is Reserved. 


LONDON : 

R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL. 










Jftobiratei 


TO THE MEMORY OF 

THE BRAVE MEN, THE PATIENT WOMEN, 

AND THE HELPLESS INNOCENTS OF ENGLAND, 

MORE THAN A THOUSAND IN NUMBER, 

WHO PERISHED IN THE BRUTAL MASSACRE PERPETRATED 


UPON THE GARRISON AT 

CAWPORE, 

DURING THE SEPOY REVOLT OF 


MDCCCLVII. 






PREFACE. 


So many conflicting statements have 
been made respecting the sufferings en¬ 
dured by the unhappy victims of the 
Sepoy Mutiny, who were sacrificed at 
Cawnpore, that I have felt it incumbent 
upon me to present the following narra¬ 
tive of all that I can recollect of the dis¬ 
tressing history. 

In some obscure journals, published in 
India, direct imputations have been made 
of the want of courage on the part of the 
defenders of the garrison. Justice to the 
dead has compelled me to refute these 
utterly false allegations. 



VI 


PREFACE. 


Pour of us escaped tlie massacre com¬ 
mitted by the Nana: of this number, 
one, Private Sullivan, died a few weeks 
afterwards of cholera; a second, Private 
Murphy, is, I fear, also dead, as all my 
endeavours to obtain information of him 
have failed. I had hoped to have induced 
my friend, Lieutenant Delafosse, to have 
contributed some of his recollections to 
the pages of this work; but the numerous 
engagements in which he has been occu¬ 
pied, have deprived me of the satisfaction 
it would have given had he taken a part 
in the narration. 

As our escape was effected in a state 
of nudity, it was impossible to have any 
writings to assist in the production of this 
book: it has been from first to last an 
effort of memory. Of the truthfulness 
of all that is recorded here I am perfectly 
sure, and I only regret that very much 


PREFACE. 


vii 

must have escaped my observation which 
would have been equally worth preserving 
with that which I have given. I trust 
that survivors, who fail to find any me¬ 
morial of their lost relatives and friends, 
will understand that I have not wilfully 
disappointed them. 

I am under great obligations to a friend 
wdio has assisted me in compiling the 
narrative; and, as he prefers to remain 
unnamed, I am compelled to be satisfied 
with thus publicly thanking him for the 
kind part he has taken in preparing this 
work for the press. 









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rr„ oF r " wn h?I r V." - 

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A Masonry Barrack. 

B Thatched Barrack. 

C Well in intrenchment. 

D Where Provisions were kept, 
r Main Guard. 

F F Field Magazine. 

Cl Cook-House. 

H Outhouses, 
j Redan. 

J Ash's Battery. 

K Kckford Battery. 


L 3-pounder rifled hy Lieutenant Totbury. 
M Dempster Battery. 

M Troup De loup. 

O Mess-ITouse of the Officers 56th Regt. 

wlierethe rebels had three large guns. 
P The Church, where the rebels had 
three more large guns. 

Q The Reading-Room, which entirely 
commanded the intrencliment. 

R A similar building to Reading-Room. 

S Backet-Court. 


X Rebels’ Mortar-Battery. 

U Riding-School. 

V Zigzag approach of the rebel one 24- 
' pounder. 

W Where the Band performed, be 'ore the 
mutiny, for the amusement of the. 
residents. 


No. 1. Barrack occupied by the tebels in 
large numbers. 


No. 2. Picket of 16 men, commanded 
by Captain M. Thomson. 

No. 3. Barrack, with well attached, in 
which we buried those who fell dur¬ 
ing the siege. This building was not 
occupied. 

No. 4. Held by Captain Jenkins, 2d 
Cavalry, with 16 men. 

The remainder could not be held, as our 
numbers were so few. 
































CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER I. 

CUTTACK—BEAR-SHOOTING—DESCRIPTION OF CAWNPORE 
—CANTONMENTS—NATIVE CITY—FIRST SYMPTOMS OF 
DISTURBANCE—CHUPATTIES AND LOTUS LEAVES—SUS¬ 
PECTED CARTRIDGES.13 


CHAPTER II. 

mrs. fraser’s flight from delhi—progress of mu¬ 
tiny—PRECAUTIONS TAKEN BY SIR HUGH WHEELER— 
APPLICATION TO THE NANA—THE LAST LETTERS HOME 
—OUTBREAK OF SECOND CAVALRY—FLIGHT OF OTHER 
SEPOY REGIMENTS—EXCEPTIONS TO NATIVE TREACHERY 
—PLUNDERING THE TREASURY. 26 

CHAPTER III. 

V 

THE HISTORY OF THE NANA—PERSONAL DESCRIPTION— 
BITHOOR AND ITS PALACE—PROPITIATING THE GANGES 
—AZIMOOLAH KHAN—HIS ADVENTURES IN ENGLAND. 43 

b 





X 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER IV. 

OUTBREAK OP MUTINY AT CAWNPORE—MILITARY AR¬ 
RANGEMENTS FOR DEFENCE—FIRST SHOT—SUFFERINGS 
OF BESIEGED—THE OUTPICKET STATION—PRISONERS 
TAKEN—AN AMAZONIAN GUARD—INTENSE HEAT— 
COMMISSARIAT ARRANGEMENTS. 61 

CHAPTER Y. 

EXPEDIENTS FOR FOOD—HORSE SOUP—THE WELL IN THE 
INTRENCHMENT—THE CAPTAIN OF THE WELL—CHIL¬ 
DREN PARCHED WITH THIRST—INSANITY—THE WELL 
OUTSIDE THE INTRENCHMENT—THE BARRACKS INSIDE 
THE WALL—THE FIRE—ATTEMPTED ATTACK OF THE 
SEPOYS—LOSS OF MEDICAL STORES—TREASURE FOUND 
AND LOST.. 

CHAPTER VI. 

WOMEN IN THE TRENCHES—THEIR SUFFERINGS FROM 
WOUNDS—BIRTHS AND DEATHS—SUN-STROKE—DEVO¬ 
TEDNESS OF THE CHAPLAIN—FREQUENCY OF CASUAL¬ 
TIES—INSTANCES OF TERRIBLE MUTILATION—DASH 
UPON THE ENEMY’S GUNS—EXPECTATIONS OF RELIEF 
—A SPY IN THE CAMP.99 

CHAPTER VII. 

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN ALEXANDER AND LIEUTENANT 
TOMKINSON AT OORAI—SUFFERINGS ENDURED BY 

ONE FAMILY—ARRIVAL OF LIEUTENANT BOLTON_ 

THOUGHTS ON MILITARY AFFAIRS IN THE EAST—CEN¬ 
TENARY OF PLASSY—CAPTAIN MOORE’S INGENUITY— 
NOVEL DEFENCES—CLEARING OUT THE BARRACKS— 

BLENMAN OUR SPY—MR. SHEPHERD’S ESCAPE—NATIVE 
SPIES . . 11( , 






CONTENTS 


XI 


CHAPTER VIII. 

ARTILLERY OPERATIONS—VALOROUS EXPLOIT OP DELA- 
FOSSE—LIEUTENANT ASHE—SIR HUGH WHEELER— 
CAPTAIN MOORE—EFFORTS OF NANA TO STIMULATE 
NATIVES TO REBELLION—PROCLAMATIONS. 136 


CHAPTER IX. 

MRS. GREENWAY’S ARRIVAL—OFFERS OF CAPITULATION 
FROM THE NANA—DELIBERATIONS ON PROPOSED CAPI¬ 
TULATION—PROPOSALS DISCUSSED—TREATY SIGNED— 
A PEACEFUL NIGHT. 


CHAPTER X. 

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE—FAREWELL TO THE 
INTRENCHMENT — THE EMBARKATION — TREACHERY 
AND MURDER—ESCAPE OF MAJOR VIBART’S BOAT— 
PURSUIT BY SEPOYS. 


CHAPTER XI. 

DRIFTING AND GROUNDING—DETACHMENT SENT FROM 
BOAT TO ATTACK SEPOYS—BOAT TAKEN BACK TO CAWN- 
PORE—ESCAPE TO A TEMPLE—SIX MILES SWIMMING— 
ARRIVAL AT MOORAH MHOW. 


CHAPTER XII. 

RECEPTION OF THE FOUR SAVED ONES AT MOORAR MHOW 
_ARRANGEMENTS MADE FOR OUR COMFORT—INTER¬ 
VIEW WITH NATIVES—DIRIGBIJAH SINGH’S HOSPI¬ 
TALITY. 







Xll 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER XIII. 

SENT DOWN TO THE RIVER—RELICS OF EUROPEAN PRO¬ 
PERTY—REJOIN OUR OWN CAMP—FOLLOWING HAVE¬ 
LOCK—RE-ENTER CAWNPORE—ANOTHER LOOK AT THE 
WELL AND THE INTRENCHMENT. 199 

CHAPTER XIV. 

ENQUIRIES AFTER WOMEN AND SURVIVORS FROM VIBART’S 
BOAT—THE HOUSE OF HORRORS—HORRIBLE SUFFER¬ 
INGS OF CAPTIVES—BRUTAL MASSACRE—RELICS OF 
SLAIN. 208 


CHAPTER XV. 

STATE OF CAWNPORE IN AUTUMN OF 1857 —FORTIFICA¬ 
TIONS—DEPARTURE OF HAVELOCK FOR LUCKNOW— 
ADVENTURES OF ENSIGN BROWN. 219 

CHAPTER XVI. 

SECOND ATTACK ON CAWNPORE BY GWALIOR CONTINGENT 
—TEMPORARY REVERSE OF GARRISON—ARRIVAL OF 
SIR COLIN CAMPBELL WITH RESCUED GARRISON OF 
LUCKNOW. 228 


CHAPTER XVII. 

APPOINTMENT TO COMMAND OF NATIVE POLICE—ADMIN¬ 
ISTRATION OF JUSTICE—FIGHT AT BHOGNEEPORE— 
THREE WEEKS IN HOSPITAL. 242 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

VISIT TO SIR WILLIAM PEEL—HIS LAMENTED DEATH— 
INTRODUCTION TO GOVERNOR GENERAL—INVALIDED 
HOME—SCHOOLFELLOWS LOST IN THE MUTINY—INDIA’S 
FUTURE. 256 








THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


CHAPTER I. 


CUTTACK—BEAR-SHOOTING—DESCRIPTION OP CAWNPORE— 
CANTONMENTS—NATIVE CITY—FIRST SYMPTOMS OF DIS¬ 
TURBANCE—CHUPATTIES AND LOTUS LEAVES—SUSPECTED 
CARTRIDGES. 

In the month of December 1856 my regiment, 
the 53d Native Infantry, was ordered from 
Cuttack, to Cawnpore. The former of these 
stations is situated in the south-western ex¬ 
tremity of Bengal, and the latter in the extreme 
north-west of the same presidency. 

Cuttack is the principal town of a province 
of the same name, and contains 40,000 inhabi¬ 
tants. The native city has few architectural 
pretensions, and is chiefly known for the very 
exquisite silver ornaments which its jewellers 

B 






THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


fabricate. The cantonments are beautifully 
situated on the banks of the Mahanuddy 
River. Forty-seven miles to the south is 
Juggurnauth, a mighty point of attraction to 
the natives, as it is the stronghold of Hindoo 
idolatry; and thither they flock in countless 
multitudes at certain seasons to pay their de¬ 
votions at the shrine of Krishna. But to 
Europeans the principal delight of the neigh¬ 
bourhood is the proximity of some branches of 
the Nheilgherry Iiills, or, as the old British 
navigators were wont to call them, the Nelly 
Green Mountains. The main portion of this 
mountain range in the Madras presidency is 
the seat of the well-known sanatorium to which 
the heat-stricken invalids resort from all parts 
of India, and in the salubrious climate there 
enjoyed, speedily revive from the exhausting 
influences of less elevated regions. The rocky 
jungles into which the range breaks in the 
Cuttack province, form the hunting ground of 
the officers at this station. My now lamented 
companion—Lieutenant Master—and I, often 
hunted out there in Robinson Crusoe style, 
living for a week or two upon the produce of our 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 15 

guns. Upon one of these occasions, when we 
were out bear-shooting, a black she-bear broke 
from the jungle immediately in front of me. 
I gave her both charges of my double-barrel 
gun, breaking her under jaw and one of the 
fore-paws, and looked round for my coolie to 
get the spare gun he carried; but he had 
levanted, and there was nothing left for me to 
do but follow him, which I accordingly did, 
with her bear-ship close at my heels. 

She overtook me, clawed me by the trou¬ 
sers, and down we rolled together. Her 
broken jaw saved me any dangerous acquaint¬ 
ance with her teeth, and her bruised leg 
diminished the force of her embraces; but 
the fetid breath and blood of the beast were 
insupportable. I gave her a stab with my 
hunting knife, and she made off for the covert. 
Meanwhile the coolies had run to Lieutenant 
Master, shouting, “ Sahib ! Sahib ! the bear is 
eating the other sahib/' My comrade came, 
and was rejoiced to see me on my legs; to 
mend matters, he said, “ You shall have my 
huntsman this time, he will not run away 
from you. 5 ’ 

b 2 




16 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


After beating up the jungle again the coolies 
cried, “ The bear! the bear! ” And when my 
old acquaintance made her second appearance, 

I sent a bullet through her head; but, un¬ 
happily, the native huntsman fired wildly, and 
shot one of the coolies, and the poor fellow 
died a few hours afterwards. 

Three months were occupied in the length¬ 
ened march over the nine hundred miles to 
Cawnpore. The country through which we 
passed was quiet, as indeed was the whole of 
British India at that date—ominously quiet, 
as subsequent events proved; and very little 
occurred to break the monotony of camp life. 
Weary of the bugle call which summoned us 
each morning at 2 o’clock to measure off our 
daily allowance of fifteen miles, and surfeited 
with shooting parties, threadbare stories, and 
practical jokes, we entered the fatal cantonment 
in February 1857. The 53d Native Infantry 
was a fine regiment, about a thousand strong, 
almost all of them Oude men, averaging five 
feet eight inches in height; their uniform the 
old British red, with yellow facings. By far 
the greater number of them being high caste 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


17 


men, they were regarded by the native populace 
as very aristocratic and stylish gentlemen, and 
yet their pay would sound to English ears 
as anything but compatible with the height 
of gentility, viz. seven rupees a man per 
month, out of which exorbitant sum they pro¬ 
vided all their own food, and a suit of summer 
clothing. Be astonished, ye beef-eating Guards¬ 
men ! The greater number of these swarthy 
sepoys were able to defray &11 the cost of their 
food with three rupees each a month. Tho¬ 
roughly disciplined and martial in appearance, 
these native troops presented one memorable 
point of contrast with European forces—drunk¬ 
enness was altogether unknown amongst them. 

The city of Cawnpore, which has obtained 
such a painful notoriety in connexion with 
the mutiny of 1857, is distant from Calcutta 
628 miles by land, 954 by water, and 266 
miles S.E. from Delhi; it is the principal town 
in the district of the Doab formed by the Gan¬ 
ges and the Jumna, and is situated on the right 
bank of the queen of the Indian rivers. At 
the period of the dismemberment of the Mogul 


18 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


Empire, this district passed into the hands of 
the Nawaub of Oude. 

By the treaty of Fyzabad, in 1775, the 
East India Company engaged to supply a bri¬ 
gade for the defence of the frontiers of Oude, 
and Cawnpore was selected as the station for that 
force; a subsidy being paid by the protected 
country for the maintenance of the troops. 
Subsequently, in 1801, Lord Wellesley com¬ 
muted this pay m eft t for the surrender of the 
district to the Company’s territory, and thus 
gained an important barrier against the threat¬ 
ened invasion of the south, from Caubul and 
AfFghanistan. Cawnpore immediately rose 
into one of the most important of the Com¬ 
pany’s garrisons. 

The cantonments, which are quite distinct 
from the native city, are spread over an extent of 
six miles, in a semicircular form, along the bank 
of the river, and contain an area of ten square 
miles. Hundreds of bungalows, the residences 
of the officers, stand in the midst of gardens, 
and these interspersed with forest trees, the 
barracks of the troops, with a separate bazaar 
for each regiment, and the canvas town of 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 


19 


the tented regiments, give to the tout ensemble 
a picturesque effect as seen from the river. 
On the highest ground in the cantonments 
stand the church and the assembly rooms, in 
another part a theatre, in which amateur per¬ 
formances were occasionally given, and a cafe 
supported by public subscription. In the 
officers’ gardens, which were among the best 
in India, most kinds of European vegetables 
thrived, while peaches, melons, mangoes, shad¬ 
docks, limes, oranges, plantains, guavas, and 
custard apples were abundant. Eish, flesh, 
and fowl are always plentiful, and in the 
season for game, quails, snipes, and wild ducks 
can be had cheap enough. The ortolan, which 
in Europe is the gourmand’s despair, during 
the hot winds, is seen in such dense flights 
that fifty or sixty might be brought down at 
a shot. In winter the temperature falls low 
enough to freeze water, which for this purpose 
is exposed in shallow earthen pans, and then 
collected into capacious ice-houses to furnish 
the exotic residents with the luxury so indis¬ 
pensable to their comfort during the hot season, 
when this becomes one of the hottest stations 


20 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


in India. Besides all these indigenous sup¬ 
plies, the far travelling spirit of commerce is 
not unmindful of the numerous personal wants 
which John Bull carries with him all the 
world over. In the cold season boating and 
horse-racing were the diversions most patron¬ 
ized by the officers; au reste , drill, parade, and 
regimental orders, varied by an occasional 
court martial upon some swarthy delinquent, 
mails home, and mails from home, morning 
calls, and evening dinners, formed the chief 
avocations of all seasons. 

The breadth of the Ganges at Cawnpore, in 
the dry season, is about five hundred yards, but 
when the rains have filled up its bed it becomes 
more than a mile across. Navigable for light 
craft downwards to the sea 1,000 miles, and 
up the country 300 miles, the scene which the 
river presents is full of life and variety • at the 
ghaut, or landing-place, a busy trade is con¬ 
stantly plying. A bridge of boats constructed 
by the Government, and for the passage of 
which a toll is charged, serves to conduct a 
ceaseless throng over into Oude. Merchants, 
travellers, faquirs, camels, bullocks, horses, go 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


21 


and come incessantly. Moored in-shore are mul¬ 
titudes of vessels looking with their thatched 
roofs like a floating village, while down the 
stream the pinnace with her thin, light masts 
and tight rigging, the clumsy-looking budgerow 
with its stern high above the bows, and the 
country boats like drifting stacks with their 
crews rowing, singing, and smoking, give such 
a diversity to the scene as no other river can 
boast. The great Trunk Road which passes 
close by the city, brings up daily relays of 
travellers and detachments of troops to the 
northward, all of whom halt at Cawnpore, and 
the railroad, which is now complete from 
Allahabad, will yet further enhance the busy 
traffic at this station. The cantonments have 
not unfrequently contained as many as 6,000 
troops, and these increased by the crowd of 
camp followers have made the population of 
the military bazaars 50,000 in number. 

The native city is as densely packed and 
closely built as all the human hives of the 
East are, and it contained at the time of 
the mutiny about 60,000 inhabitants. It 
has only one good avenue, which may be called 


22 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 


its Broadway, the Chandnee-choke. This 
street is about three hundred yards long and 
thirty-five yards in breadth, and is filled with 
the shops of saddlers, silk merchants, and 
dealers in the fine fabrics and cunning work¬ 
manship in gold and silver, that from time 
immemorial have attracted western barbarians 
to the splendid commerce of the East. The 
principal productions of the city are, however, 
saddlery and shoes, the former of which is 
especially popular throughout India for its 
excellence and cheapness; a set of good single¬ 
horse driving harness costs from twenty-five 
to fifty shillings, and the equestrian can equip 
himself luxuriantly with bridle, saddle, &c., 
for thirty shillings. Country horses, as they 
are called, sell for about a hundred rupees, 
but Arabs brought down the Persian Gulf and 
across from Bombay are the chief favourites, 
and command a high price. 

At the period with which this narrative 
commences, the following regiments consti¬ 
tuted the force occupying the Cawnpore gar¬ 
rison :—the 1st, 53d, and 56th Native 
Infantry; the 2nd Cavalry, and a company of 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


23 


Artillerymen, all of these being sepoys, and 
about 3,000 in number. 

The European residents consisted of the 
officers attached to the Sepoy regiments; 60 
men of the S4th Regiment; 74 men of the 
32nd Regiment, who were invalided; 15 men 
of the Madras Fusiliers, and 59 men of the 
Company’s Artillery, about 300 combatants 
in all. In addition to these there were the 
wives, children, and native servants of the 
officers; 300 half caste children belonging 
to the Cawnpore school; merchants (some 
Europeans and others Eurasians); shopkeepers, 
railway officials, and their families. Some of 
the civilians at the station were permanently 
located there, others had escaped from dis¬ 
turbances in the surrounding districts; the 
entire company included considerably more 
than a thousand Europeans. 

General Sir Hugh Wheeler, K.C.B., was 
the commandant of the division, and Mr. 
Hillersden the magistrate of the Cawnpore 
district. 

The first intimation that appeared of any 
disaffection in the minds of the natives was 


24 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

the circulation of cliupatties and lotus leaves. 
Early in March it was reported that a cliow- 
kedar, or village policeman, of Cawnpore had 
run up to one of his comrades and had given 
him two cliupatties. These are unleavened 
cakes, made of flour, water, and salt; the 
mode of telegraphing by their means was for 
the cakes to be eaten in the presence of the 
giver, and fresh ones made by the newly 
initiated one, who in his turn distributed them 
to new candidates for participation in the 
mystery. The cliupatties were limited to 
civilians; and lotus leaves, the emblem of war, 
were in like manner handed about among the 
soldiery. Various speculations were made by 
Europeans as to the import of this extreme 
activity in the circulation of these occult har¬ 
bingers of the mutiny, but they subsided into 
an impression that they formed some portion 
of the native superstitions. And no one 
dreamt, like the man in Gideon’s camp who 
saw the barley-cake overturn the tents of 
Midian, that these farinaceous weapons were 
aimed at the overthrow of the British rule in 
India. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


25 


Upon the 14th of May intelligence reached 
us of the revolt at Meerut and the subsequent 
events at Delhi; but no apprehension was felt 
of treachery on the part of our own troops. 
A few sepoys who had been for instruction to 
the school of musketry at Umballa returned 
to their respective regiments, and they were 
amicably received, and allowed to eat with 
their own caste, although they had been using 
the Enfield rifle and the suspected cartridges. 
One of these men, Mhan Khan, a Mussulman 
private of the 53 d, brought with him speci¬ 
mens of the cartridges, to assure his comrades 
that no animal fat had been employed in their 
construction. It may be as well to state that 
the first instalment of these notorious car¬ 
tridges which were sent out from England, 
and intended for the use of the Queen’s 
troops, were without doubt abundantly offen¬ 
sive to the Feringhees as well as to the faithful, 
and from the nauseous odour which accompa¬ 
nied them quite equal to breeding a pestilence, 
if not adequate to the task which has been 
attributed to them of causing the mutiny. 


20 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


CHAPTER II. 


mhs. fraser’s flight from delhi—progress of mutiny— 

PRECAUTIONS TAKEN BY SIR HUGH WHEELER—APPLICA¬ 
TION TO THE NANA—THE LAST LETTERS HOME—OUTBREAK 
OF 2D CAVALRY—FLIGHT OF OTHER SEPOY REGIMENTS— 
EXCEPTIONS TO NATIVE TREACHERY—PLUNDERING THE 
TREASURY. 

Two or three days after the arrival of the 
tidings from Delhi of the massacre which had 
been perpetrated in the old city of the Moguls, 
Mrs. Fraser, the wife of an officer in the 27th 
Native Infantry, reached our cantonments, 
having travelled dak from that scene of blood¬ 
shed and revolt. The native driver who had 
taken her up in the precincts of the city brought 
her faithfully to the end of her hazardous jour¬ 
ney of 266 miles. The exposure which she had 
undergone was evident from a bullet that had 
pierced the carriage. Her flight from Delhi 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 27 

was but the beginning of the sorrows of this 
unfortunate lady, though she deserves rather 
to be commemorated for her virtues than her 
sufferings. During the horrors of the siege 
she won the admiration of all our party by 
her indefatigable attentions to the wounded. 
Neither danger nor fatigue seemed to have 
power to suspend her ministry of mercy. Even 
on the fatal morning of embarkation, although 
she had escaped to the boats with scarcely any 
clothing upon her, in the thickest of the deadly 
volleys poured upon us from the banks, she 
appeared alike indifferent to danger and to 
her own scanty covering; while with perfect 
equanimity and unperturbed fortitude she was 
entirely occupied in the attempt to soothe and 
relieve the agonized sufferers around her, whose 
wounds scarcely made their condition worse 
than her own. Such rare heroism deserves a 
far higher tribute than this simple record from 
my pen ; but I feel a mournful satisfaction in 
publishing a fact which a more experienced 
scribe would have depicted in language more 
worthy of the subject, though not with admi¬ 
ration or regret deeper or more sincere than 


28 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


that which I feel. Mrs. Fraser was one of the 
party recaptured from the boats, and is re¬ 
ported to have died from fever before the 
terrific butchery that immediately preceded 
General Havelock’s recapture of Cawnpore. 

About the 20th of May intelligence came 
that all communications with Delhi were now 
entirely suspended. The road northward was 
infested with dacoits and liberated convicts, 
and all Europeans travelling in that direction 
were compelled to tarry in our cantonments. 
Our parades still continued with their accus¬ 
tomed regularity; no suspicion was uttered, 
if entertained, of the fidelity of our sepoys, 
although serious apprehension began to be felt 
of the probability of an attack from without, 
more especially as w 7 e were known to be in 
possession of a considerable amount of govern¬ 
ment treasure. 

The Mahommedan festival of the Eede passed 
off quietly, and the Mussulmans gave the salaam 
to their officers, and assured us that come what 
would, they would stand faithfully to their 
leaders. A fire broke out in the lines of the 
1st Native Infantry in the night of the 20th, 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 29 

which was supposed to be the work of an in¬ 
cendiary, and the probable signal for revolt ; 
six guns were accordingly run down to a pre¬ 
concerted place of rendezvous, and the sepoys 
were ordered to extinguish the flames; this 
was done promptly, and the cause of the fire 
was found to have been accidental. Day 
after day news came of the growth of the 
storm. Etawah and Allyghurh, both towns 
between Delhi and Cawnpore, were plundered, 
and the insurgents were reported as en route for 
Cawnpore. The sergeant-major’s wife of the 
53d, an Eurasian by birth, went marketing to 
the native bazaar, when she was accosted by a 
sepoy out of regimental dress,—“ You will none 
of you come here much oftener; you will not 
be alive another week.” She reported her 
story at headquarters, but it was thought 
advisable to discredit the tale. Several of us at 
this period endeavoured to persuade the ladies 
to leave the station and retreat to Calcutta for 
safety ; but they unanimously declined to 
remove so long as General Wheeler retained 
his family with him. 

Determined, self-possessed, and fearless of ‘ 


c 


30 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


danger, Sir Hugh Wheeler now made arrange¬ 
ments for the protection of the women and 
children. A mud wall, four feet high, was 
thrown up round the old dragoon hospital. 
The buildings thus intrenched were two brick 
structures, one thatched, the other roofed with 
masonry. On the 21st of May the women and 
children were all ordered into these barracks, 
the officers still sleeping at the quarter guards 
in the lines with their respective corps. Around 
the intrenchments the guns were placed, three 
on the north-east side commanding the lines, 
and three on the south to range the plain which 
separates the cantonments from the city. A 
small three-pounder, which had been rifled by 
Lieut. Fosbury a year or two before, was also 
brought into use, and placed so as to command 
the new barracks which were in course of erec¬ 
tion ; this piece, however, could only be used 
for grape, as there was no conical shot in store. 
A few days afterwards, Lieut. Ashe, of the 
Bengal Artillery, arrived from Lucknow with a 
half battery, consisting of two nine-pounders 
and one twenty-four-pounder howitzer. These 
ten guns were all the artillery that could be 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 31 

brought to the position, and they constituted 
our sole means of defence by artillery; and 
the poor little mud wall our only bulwark. 
On the return of the Queen’s birthday, no 
salute was fired, lest the natives should con¬ 
strue it into the signal for rising; and our offi¬ 
cers now took it in turn to sit up all night, 
that we might not altogether be taken by 
surprise. The general gave orders to lay in 
supplies for twenty-five days. Dali, ghee, salt, 
rice, tea, sugar, rum, malt liquor, and hermeti¬ 
cally sealed provisions were ordered; but peas 
and flour formed the bulk of the food obtained. 
Either in consequence of the defection of the 
native agents who supplied the commissariat, 
or because Sir Hugh Wheeler had only ar¬ 
ranged for the support of the military at the 
station, the stock was ridiculously insufficient. 

The regimental messes sent in contributions 
of beer, wine, and preserved food; but the 
casks of the former were tapped by the 
enemy’s shot soon after the commencement of 
the siege, and the hermetically sealed stores of 
fish, game, and soup did not hold out a week. 
As long as they lasted all shared alike, the 
c 2 


32 


the story of cawnpore. 


youngest recruit had the same rations as the 
old general; no distinctions were made 
between civilians and military men, and 
there was not a solitary instance in which an 
individual had lost sight of the common 
necessity, and sacrificed it to self-interest by 
hoarding supplies. Ammunition was plentiful, 
there being in the field magazines two thou¬ 
sand pounds of powder, with ball cartridge 
and round shot in abundance. 

The resident magistrate, Mr. Idillersden, 
being greatly concerned for the safety of the 
large amount of treasure under his charge, 
more than a hundred thousand pounds, after 
consultation with Sir Hugh Wheeler, sent 
over to Bithoor requesting the presence and 
aid of Nana Sahib; he came instantly, attended 
by his body guard, and engaged to send a 
force of two hundred cavalry, four hundred 
infantry, and two guns to protect the revenue. 
The treasury was at the distance of five miles 
from the intrenchment, and it was thought in¬ 
expedient to bring the revenue into the former 
position, consequently it was placed under 
the custody of the detachment from Bithoor, 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


33 


together with a company of the 53d Native 
Infantry, and Nana Sahib himself resided in 
the civil lines of the cantonment. The relations 
we had always sustained with this man had 
been of so friendly a nature that not a sus¬ 
picion of his fidelity entered the minds of any 
of our leaders; his reinforcements considerably 
allayed the feverish excitement caused by our 
critical condition, and it was even proposed 
that the ladies should be removed to his resi¬ 
dence at Bithoor, that they might be in a 
place of safety. One or two families now 
made the attempt to get down by boats to 
Allahabad, but the dry season had come on, 
the Ganges was low, and escape was found to 
be impracticable. On the 31st of May, Colonel 
Ewart wrote to friends in England: 

“ I do not wish to write gloomily, but there 
is no use disguising the facts that we are in 
the utmost danger, and, as I have said, if the 
troops do mutiny, my life must almost cer¬ 
tainly be sacrificed. But I do not think they 
will venture to attack the intrenched position 
which is held by the European troops. So I 
hope in God that E-and my child will be 



34 THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 

saved. The Hillersdens and their two children 
have been staying with us since the 21st, 
when the danger became imminent, as it was 
no longer safe for them to remain in their 
own house, four miles from the cantonments. 

And now, dear A-, farewell. If under 

God’s providence this be the last time I am 
to write to you, I entreat you to forgive all I 
have ever done to trouble you, and to think 
kindly of me. I know you will be everything 
a mother can be to my boy. I cannot write 
to him this time, dear little fellow; kiss him 
for me; kind love to M-and my brothers.” 

By the same mail, Mrs. Ewart despatched 
some most affecting letters home; the follow¬ 
ing extracts convey a truthful representation 
of the state of things with us on the 1st of 
June:— 

“ For ourselves, I need only say, that even 
should our position be strong enough to hold 
out, there is the dreadful exposure to the heat 
of May and June, together with the privations 
and confinement of besieged sufferers, to ren¬ 
der it very unlikely that we can survive the 
disasters which may fall upon us any day, anv 



THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


35 


hour. I am going to despatch this to Cal¬ 
cutta, to be sent through our agents there, 
that you may know our situation. My dear 
little child is looking very delicate; my prayer 
is, that she may be spared much suffering. 
The bitterness of death has been tasted by us 
many, many times during the last fortnight; 
and should the reality come, I hope we may 
find strength to meet it with a truly Christian 
courage. It is not hard to die oneself, but to 
see a dear child suffer and perish—that is the 
hard, the bitter trial, and the cup which I 
must drink should God not deem it fit that it 
should pass from me. My companion, Mrs. 

H-, is delightful. Poor young thing! 

she has such a gentle spirit, so unmurmuring, 
so desirous to meet the trial rightly, so un¬ 
selfish and sweet in every way. Her husband 
is an excellent man, and of course very much 
exposed to danger, almost as much as mine. 
She has two children, and we feel that our 
duty to our little ones demands that we should 
exert ourselves to keep up health and spirits 
as much as possible. There is a reverse to 
this sad picture. Delhi may be retaken in a 



36 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

short time, aid may come to us, and all may 
subside into tranquillity once more. Let us 
hope for the best, do our duty, and trust in 
God above all things. Should I be spared, I 
will write to you by the latest date. We must 
not give way to despondency, for at the worst 
we know that we are in God’s hands, and He 
does not for an instant forsake us. He 
will be with us in the valley of the shadow 
of death also, and we need fear no evil. 
God bless you! ” 

4 4 Our weak position here, with a mere 
handful of Europeans, places us in very great 
danger; and daily and hourly we are looking 
for disasters. It is supposed that the com¬ 
mandants here have shown wonderful tact, 
and that their measure of boldly facing the 
danger by going out to sleep amongst their 
men, has had a wonderful effect in restraining 
them. But everybody knows that this cannot 
last. Any accidental spark may set the whole 
of the regiments of infantry, and one of ca¬ 
valry, in a blaze of mutiny; and even if we 
keep our position where we are intrenched, 
with six guns, officers must be sacrificed; and 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


37 


I do not attempt to conceal from myself that 
my husband runs greater risk than any one of 
the whole force. Europeans are almost daily 
arriving from Calcutta, but in small numbers, 
twenty and thirty at a time. Every day that 
we escape free of disturbance adds to our 
strength, and gives a better chance for our 
lives. Property is not to be thought of, as 
conflagrations always accompany the out¬ 
breaks, and we may be quite sure of our 
bungalows being burnt down directly troubles 
commence. Such nights of anxiety I would 
never have believed possible, and the days are 
full of excitement. Every note and every 
message come pregnant with events and 
alarms. Another fortnight, we expect, will 
decide our fate, and, whatever it may be, I 
trust we shall be enabled to bear it. If these 
are my last words to you, you will remember 
them lovingly ; and always bear in mind, that 
your affection and the love we have ever had 
for each other, is an ingredient of comfort in 
these bitter times.” 

Such were the workings of many a mother’s 
heart in our crowded enclosure; but terrible 


38 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


as the suspense and solicitude felt at this 
period were, they were but preliminary to 
horrors indescribably more acute. 

Meanwhile, General Wheeler visited the 
lines daily, chatted with the sepoys, and en¬ 
couraged their confidence, but could get no 
certain intelligence of anything like plotting 
in their midst. There was no appearance of 
reserve or sullenness, and no occasion demand¬ 
ing severe discipline, except in the case of one 
native of the 56th Native Infantry, who was 
actually given up by some of the sepoys for 
attempting to spread sedition. This man was 
tried by a court-martial composed of his own 
countrymen only. They found him guilty, 
and he was imprisoned in the intrenchments, 
although he ultimately effected his escape soon 
after the commencement of the siege. 

At length the much-dreaded explosion came. 
On the night of the 6th of June, the 2d 
Cavalry broke out. They first set fire to the 
riding-master’s bungalow, and then fled, carry¬ 
ing off with them horses, arms, colours, and 
the regimental treasure-chest. The old soub- 
hadar-major of the regiment defended the 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


89 


colours and treasure which were in the 
quarter-guard as long as he could, and the 
poor old fellow was found in the morning 
severely wounded, and lying in his blood at 
his post. This was the only instance of any 
native belonging to that regiment who retained 
his fidelity. The old man remained with us, 
and was killed by a shell in the intrenchment. 
An hour or two after the flight of the cavalry, 
the 1st Native Infantry also bolted, leaving 
their officers untouched upon the parade- 
ground. The 56th Native Infantry followed 
the next morning. The 53d remained, till, 
by some error of the General, they were 
fired into. I am at an utter loss to account 
for this proceeding. The men were peace¬ 
fully occupied in their lines, cooking; no 
signs of mutiny had appeared amidst their 
ranks, they had refused all the solicitations of 
the deserters to accompany them, and seemed 
quite steadfast, when Ashe’s battery opened 
upon them by Sir Hugh Wheeler’s command, 
and they were literally driven from us by nine- 
pounders. The only signal that had preceded 
this step was the calling in to the intrench- 


40 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

ments of the native officers of the regiment. 
The whole of them cast in their lot with us, 
besides a hundred and fifty privates, most of 
them belonging to the Grenadier company. 
The detachment of the 53d posted at the 
treasury held their ground against the rebels 
about four hours. We could hear their mus¬ 
ketry in the distance, but were not allowed to 
attempt their relief. The faithful little band 
that had joined our desperate fortunes was 
ordered to occupy the military hospital, about 
six hundred yards to the east of our position, 
and they held it for nine days, when, in con¬ 
sequence of its being set on fire, they were 
compelled to evacuate. They applied for ad¬ 
mission to the intrenchments, but were told 
that we had not food sufficient to allow of an 
increase to our number. Major Hillersden 
gave them a few rupees each, together with 
a certificate of their fidelity. Had it been 
possible to have received these men, they 
would have constituted a powerful addition to 
our force, just as the few gallant remnants 
of the native regiments at Lucknow did 
throughout the second edition of the Cawn- 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 41 

pore siege, as it was enacted in the Oude 
capital. It ought never to be forgotten, 
that although the influences of this mutiny 
spread with all the impetuosity of a tor¬ 
rent which sweeps everything less stable 
than the mountains before it, there were 
amongst the sepoy regiments not a few who 
proved faithful to their salt, and who deserve 
surely as much gratitude as the revolters have 
obtained execration. And amongst these 
honourable exceptions I, for one, shall always 
rank the native commissioned, and non-com¬ 
missioned officers, and a few privates, of the 
now extinct 53d regiment of Native Infantry 
The first impulse of the mutineers would 
appear to have been to have made their way 
to Delhi, and to have cast in their lot with 
their countrymen at the head-quarters of re¬ 
volt; but when they reached Nawabgunge, 
the Nana came out to meet them, and at their 
head proceeded to the treasury, where he had 
all the government elephants laden with the 
public money, and distributed a vast amount 
of it among the sepoys, whose command he 
forthwith assumed. Carts and carriages were 


42 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


obtained from the neighbouring city, and the 
magazines rifled of the ammunition, lhirty 
boat-loads of shot and shell that were lying in 
the canal fell into their hands, and the profu¬ 
sion of the material of war which they obtained 
from the cantonments (where one magazine 
alone contained 200,000 lbs. of gunpowder, 
besides innumerable cartridges and percussion 
caps) furnished them with supplies amply suf¬ 
ficient for a campaign. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


43 


CHAPTER HI. 


THE HISTORY OF THE NANA—‘PERSONAL DESCRIPTION_ 

BITHOOR AND ITS PALACE—PROPITIATING THE GANGES_ 

AZIMOOLAH KHAN—HIS ADVENTURES IN ENGLAND. 


Among the peculiarities which have attached 
to the mutiny of 1857, one fact, which has 
greatly weakened the cause of the rebels, has 
been, that their ranks have not yielded one man 
of mental calibre and military skill sufficient to 
constitute him a great leader, and to draw the 
confidence of the natives around his banners. 
If, instead of being split up into factions, 
under a diversity of incompetent chiefs, as they 
have been, an Aurungzebe, a Hyder, or a 
Tippoo had made his appearance among the 
sepoys, the possession of India as an append¬ 
age to the British Crown would, in all proba- 


44 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


bility, have required a recon quest rather than 
the treading out the scattered embers of mu¬ 
tiny by forced marches, which has been the 
task assigned to the army of Lord Clyde. 
Looking round upon the pretensions of the men 
who had assumed the command of the muti¬ 
neers, we search in vain for one whose conduct 
has been instigated by motives of patriotism, 
or whose character will bear the slightest 
investigation. In some instances Mahommedan 
spite, in others imaginary personal grievances, 
and, in not a few, base ingratitude, have formed 
the only discernible motives of the disaffected 
chiefs who have taken up arms against us. 
The name most familiarly associated with the 
events of the mutiny is that borne by a man 
whose history is almost unknown out of India. 
And as Nana Sahib will always be identified 
with the sanguinary proceedings at Cawnpore, 
it will not be out of place to give the reader 
some idea of the antecedents of this notorious 
scoundrel. Seereek Dhoondoo Punth, or as 
he is now universally called the Nana (i.e. 
grandson), and by the majority of newspaper 
readers Nana Sahib, is the adopted son of the 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 45 

late Bajee Rao, who was Peishwa of Poonah, 
and the last of the Mahratta kings. Driven by 
his faithlessness and uncontrollable treachery 
to dethrone the old man, the British govern¬ 
ment assigned him a residence at Bithoor, 
twelve miles from Cawnpore, where he dwelt 
until his death in 1851, at a safe distance 
from all Mahratta associations, but, as to his 
own personal, condition, in most sumptuous 
and right regal splendour. Bajee Rao was 
sonless, a deplorable condition in the estima¬ 
tion of a Brahmin prince; he therefore had 
recourse to adoption, and Seereek Dhoondoo 
Punth was the favoured individual of his se¬ 
lection. Some say that the Nana is really the 
son of a corn-dealer of Poonah, others that he 
is the offspring of a poor Konkauee Brahmin, 
and that he first saw the light at Venn, a 
miserable little village about thirty miles east 
of Bombay. Shortly after the death of Bajee 
Rao, the Nana presented a claim upon the 
East India Company for a continuance of the 
pension allowed to the old Mahratta. As the 
allowance made to the king was purely in the 
form of an annuity, the demand of the heir to 


D 


46 THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 

all his private property to enjoy a share of the 
Indian revenue was most emphatically denied. 
Hence the vigorous venom which he imparted 
to the enterprise of the mutineers. It is always 
a matter of difficulty to decide upon the exact 
age of an Asiatic, but I should consider the 
Nana to be about thirty-six years old. With 
greater confidence I can add, that he is ex¬ 
ceedingly corpulent, of sallow complexion, of 
middle height, with thoroughly marked fea¬ 
tures, and like all Mahrattas, clean shaven on 
both head and face. He does not speak a 
word of English. 

Bithoor palace, which he inherited from his 
benefactor, is a well situated town. It has 
several Hindoo temples, and ghauts, which 
give access to the sacred stream. Brahma is 
specially reverenced here. At the principal 
ghaut he is said to have offered an aswamedha 
on completing the act of creation. The pin of 
his slipper, left behind him on the occasion, is 
fastened into one of the steps of the ghaut, and 
is the object of worship. There is an annual 
gathering to this spot at the full moon of No¬ 
vember, which attracts prodigious numbers of 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 47 

devotees, and contributes quite as much to the 
prosperity of the town as it does to the piety 
of the pilgrims. The palace was spacious, and 
though not remarkable for any architectural 
beauty, was exquisitely furnished in European 
style. All the reception rooms were decorated 
with immense mirrors and massive chandeliers 
in variegated glass, and of the most recent 
manufacture: the floor was covered with the 
finest productions of the Indian looms, and all 
the appurtenances of eastern splendour were 
strewed about in prodigious abundance. There 
were saddles of silver for both horses and 
camels, guns of every possible construction, 
shields inlaid with gold, carriages for camel¬ 
driving and the newest turn-outs from Long 
Acre; plate, gems, and curiosities in ivory and 
metal; while without in the compound might 
be seen the fleetest horses, the finest dogs, and 
rare specimens of deer, antelopes, and other 
animals from all parts of India. It would be 
quite impossible to lift the veil that must rest 
on the private life of this man. There were 
apartments in the Bithoor palace horribly unfit 
for any human eye; in which both European 


48 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


and native artists had done their utmost to 
gratify the corrupt master, from whom they 
could command any price. 

It was frequently the custom of the Nana to 
entertain the officers of the Cawnpore garrison 
in the most sumptuous style; although he 
would accept none of their hospitality in return, 
because no salute was permitted in his honour. 
I have been a guest in those halls when costly 
festivities were provided for the very persons 
who were at length massacred by their quon¬ 
dam host; and I was there also when Have¬ 
lock’s Ironsides gave their entertainment, 
shattering to powder all that was fragile, in 
revenge for the atrocities lying unrequited at 
those doors. For downright looting commend 
me to the hirsute Sikli; for destructive ag¬ 
gression, battering, and butt-ending, the palm 
must be awarded to the privates of Her Bri¬ 
tannic Majesty’s - Regiment. “ Look 

what I have found ! ” said a too demonstrative 
individual of the last-named corps, at the same 
time holding up a bag full of rupees for the 
gaze of his comrades, when an expert Sikh 
with a blow of his tulwar cut the canvas that 



THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


49 


held the treasure, and sent the glittering spoil 
flying amongst the eager spectators. 

A large portion of the Nana’s plate was 
found in the wells around the palace; gold 
dishes, some of them as much as two feet in 
diameter; silver jugs; spittoons of both gold 
and silver, that had been used by the betel¬ 
eating Brahmin, were fished up, and proved 
glorious prizes for somebody. Every cranny 
in the house was explored, floors were removed, 
partitions pulled down, and every square foot 
on the surface of the adjacent grounds pierced 
and dug in the search after spoil. Brazier’s 
Sikhs have the credit of carrying off Bajee 
Rao’s state sword, which, in consequence of 
its magnificent setting with jewels, is said to 
have been worth at least thirty thousand 
pounds. The most portable of his riches ine 
Nana carried with him in his flight; tne na¬ 
tives say that immediately before the insur¬ 
rection at Meerut he sold out seventy lacs of 
government paper (70,000/.). One ruby of 
great size and brilliancy he is alleged to have 
sold recently for ten thousand rupees to a 
native banker; the tradition is that he carried 


50 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


this gem continually about his person, intend¬ 
ing, should he be driven to extremities, to 
destroy himself by swallowing it; a curious 
mode of suicide, the efficacy of which I 
am not prepared either to dispute or to 
defend; my informant told me that the 
sharp edges of the ruby would cut through 
the vitals, and speedily destroy life. The 
Nana’s dignity was enhanced by the pre¬ 
sence of a few hundred armed retainers, 
with whom he played the rajah; the pay of 
each of these men was four rupees a month 
and a suit of clothes per annum, foraging 
performed on their own account. It would 
have been quite a work of supererogation for 
the Oude and Mahratta princes to have fed 
their troops, as they always knew where to 
find copious supplies at a nominal price. Their 
perpetual rapine made them a curse to the 
poor ryots, who were never safe from their 
extortions and pillage. 

The only Englishman resident at Bithoor 
was a Mr. Todd, who had come out in the 
employment of the Grand Trunk Railroad, but 
for some reason had exchanged his situation 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


51 


for that of teacher of English to the household 
of his Excellency Seereek Dhoondoo Punth. 
Mr. Todd was allowed to join us in the 
intrenchment; when the siege began he was 
appointed to my picket, and was one of those 
who perished at the time of embarkation. 

The following little incident will serve to 
show the extreme servility of the most exalted 
of Hindoo potentates to the despotic sway 
of their spiritual guides. Once upon a time 
Seereek Dhoondoo Punth had committed some 
peccadillo which had awakened all the indig¬ 
nation and abhorrence of his pundits and 
priests. Now it so fell out that at the same 
time, or sufficiently near about thereto for 
the object of their holinesses, the capricious 
Ganges, having formed a sandbank under the 
walls of Bithoor, was diverted from its ancient 
course, so as to threaten the residency with a 
scarcity of water. The priests persuaded their 
devotee that this was a visitation consequent 
upon his sin, and implored him, as he valued 
his own life and that of his peasantry, to 
propitiate the sacred stream. The offering 
proposed was to be pecuniary: the amount, 


52 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


one lac of rupees ;—the mode of presentation, 
casting them into the bed of the river;—the 
period, an early date chosen by lot.. These 
cautious and speculative gentlemen forthwith 
proceeded to underlay the waters with some 
good, stout sail-cloth; at the appointed time 
they indicated the precise spot at which only 
the offering could be efficacious: this also, no 
doubt, was chosen by lot. The Nana, in 
great state, made his costly libation, and some¬ 
body removed the sail-cloth; but, alas! the 
Ganges did not return. 

When Havelock’s force paid their first visit 
to Bithoor, they found the place deserted, but 
the guns in position and loaded. This is said 
to have been done by Narrein Rao, the son of 
the old Mahratta’s Commander-in-Chief. This 
man welcomed the English troops on their 
arrival, and alleged that he had pointed the 
guns as a feint to make the rebels believe that 
he was about to attack General Havelock’s 
advancing columns. Certain it is, that this 
man and the Nana had always been in hot 
water. Narrein Rao very energetically sided 
with the general, he found supplies and 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 53 

horses for the police. It seems decidedly more 
than probable that the lion’s share of the 
Bithoor valuables fell to Narrein, as he was 
conveniently on the spot when the retreaters 
evacuated, and had the additional advantage 
of knowing better where to look for things 
than the inexperienced fresh arrivals did. I 
must not, however, speak to the disparagement 
of this gentleman, because when I left Cawn- 
pore for England, he presented me with a fine 
pearl ring as a proof of the esteem in which 
he is pleased to hold me; some persons might 
think its intrinsic value increased because it 
once adorned the Nana’s hand. 

Less known in England by report, though 
better known by virtue of personal acquaint¬ 
ance, and a far more remarkable individual 
than the Nana, is he who bears the name— 
Azimoolah Khan. This man’s adventures are 
of the kind, for their numerous transitions 
and mysterious alternations, that belong only 
to eastern story. I can easily imagine that 
the bare mention of his name will have power 
sufficient to cause some trepidation and alarm 
to a few of my fair readers ; but I will betray 


54 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


no confidences. Read on, my lady, no names 
shall be divulged, only should some unpleasant 
recollections of our hero’s fascination be called 
to mind, let them serve as a warning against 
the too confiding disposition which once be¬ 
trayed you into a hasty admiration of this 
swarthy adventurer. Azimoolah was origi¬ 
nally a khitmutghar (waiter at table) in some 
Anglo-Indian family; profiting by the oppor¬ 
tunity thus afforded him, he acquired a 
thorough acquaintance with the English and 
French languages, so as to be able to read 
and converse fluently, and write accurately in 
them both. He afterwards became a pupil, 
and subsequently a teacher, in the Cawnpore 
government schools, and from the last-named 
position he was selected to become the vakeel, 
or prime agent, of the Nana. On account of 
his numerous qualifications he was deputed 
to visit England, and press upon the autho¬ 
rities in Leadenhall Street the application for 
the continuance of Bajee Rao’s pension. 
Azimoolah accordingly reached London in the 
season of 1854. Passing himself off as an 
Indian prince, and being thoroughly furnished 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 55 

witli ways and means, and having withal a 
most presentable contour, he obtained admis¬ 
sion to distinguished society. In addition to 
the political business which he had in hand, 
he was at one time prosecuting a suit of his 
own of a more delicate character; but, happily 
for our fair countrywoman, who was the 
object of his attentions, her friends interfered 
and saved her from becoming an item in the 
harem of this Mahommedan polygamist. Foiled 
in all his attempts to obtain the pension for his 
employer, he returned to India via France; and 
report says that he there renewed his endeavours 
to form an European alliance for his own indi¬ 
vidual benefit. I believe that Azimoolah took 
the way of Constantinople also on his home¬ 
ward route. Howbeit this was just at the 
time when prospects were gloomy in the 
Crimea, and the opinion was actively promul¬ 
gated throughout the continental nations that 
the struggle with Russia had crippled the 
resources, and humbled the high crest of 
England; and by some it was thought she 
would henceforth be scarcely able to hold her 
own against bolder and abler hands. Doubt- 


56 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 


less the wish was father to the thought. It 
is matter of notoriety that such vaticinations 
as these were at the period in question current 
from Calais to Cairo, and it is not unlikely 
that the poor comfort Azimoolah could give 
the Nana, in reporting on his unsuccessful 
journey, would be in some measure compen¬ 
sated for, by the tidings that the Feringhees 
were ruined, and that one decisive blow would 
destroy their yoke in the East. I believe that 
the mutiny had its origin in the diffusion of 
such statements at Delhi, Lucknow, and other 
teeming cities in India. Subtle, intriguing, 
politic, unscrupulous, and bloodthirsty, sleek 
and wary as a tiger, this man betrayed no 
animosity to us until the outburst of the 
mutiny, and then he became the presiding 
genius in the assault on Cawnpore. I regret 
that his name does not appear, as it certainly 
ought to have done, upon the list of outlaws 
published by the Governor-General; for this 
Azimoolah was the actual murderer of our 
sisters and their babes. When Havelock’s 
men cleared out Bithoor, they found most 
expressive traces of the success he had ob- 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


57 


tained in his ambitious pursuit of distinction 
in England, in the shape of letters from titled 
ladies couched in the terms of most courteous 
friendship. Little could they have suspected 
the true character of their honoured corre¬ 
spondent. 

On one occasion, shortly after the report 
of the emeute at Meerut had reached us, 
Azimoolah met Lieutenant M. G. Daniell, of 
our garrison, and said to him, pointing toward 
our intrenched barrack : 

“ What do you call that place you are 
making out in the plain P ” 

“ I am sure I don’t know,” was the reply. 
Azimoolah suggested it should be named the 
fort of despair. 

“ No,” said Daniell; “ we will call it the fort 
of victory.” 

“Aha! Aha!” replied the wily eastern, 
with a silent sneer that betrayed the lurking 
mischief. 

Lieutenant Daniell had been a great favourite 
at Bithoor; on one occasion the Nana took off 
a valuable diamond ring from his own hand, 
and gave it to him, as a present. Poor 


58 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


Daniell survived the siege, but was wounded 
in my boat, during the embarkation, by a 
musket shot in the temple, but whether he 
perished in the river, or was carried back to 
Cawnpore, I cannot say ; he was quite young, 
scarcely of age, but brave to admiration, a 
fearless horseman, foremost in all field sports, 
and universally beloved for his great amia¬ 
bility. On one occasion during the siege, 
while we were making a sortie to clear the 
adjacent barracks of some of our assailants, 
Daniell and I heard sounds of struggling in a 
room close at hand; rushing in together, we 
saw Captain Moore, our second in command, 
lying on the ground under the grasp of a 
powerful native, who was on the point of 
cutting the Captain’s throat. A fall from his 
horse a few days previously, resulting in a 
broken collar-bone, had disabled Moore, and 
rendered him unequal to such a rencontre; he 
would certainly have been killed had not 
Daniell’s bayonet instantly transfixed the 
sepoy. In the manifold deaths which sur¬ 
rounded us in those terrific times, such hair¬ 
breadth escapes were little thought of; and 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 59 

disciplined by perpetual exposure, a prompt¬ 
ness of action quick as thought, was acquired 
and kept in continual practice, both for self- 
defence and for the preservation of the valu¬ 
able lives of those about us. 

In reviewing the combined adventures of 
the two miscreants who have occupied this 
chapter, one is curious to know what will 
be the next page in the history of these 
accomplices in treachery and murder, the son 
of the Konkanee Brahmin, and the highly 
polished khitmutghar. Will Azimoolah be¬ 
tray his master into the hands of Lord Clyde, 
and, as the finishing stroke of his desperate 
cunning, pocket the reward of ten thousand 
pounds ? That would be no unparalleled 
climax to a career so thoroughly Asiatic as 
his. Will he ever again be seen in London 
drawing-rooms, or cantering on Brighton 
Downs, the centre of an admiring bevy of 
English damsels ? That would hardly com¬ 
port with the most latitudinarian notions of 
propriety. Then let us point the moral, by 
warning Belgravia to be careful ere she 
adorns the drawing-room with Asiatic guests. 


60 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


The present condition of these two adven¬ 
turers must be one of abject, hopeless despair. 
Their finances, however lavish in the first in¬ 
stance, cannot have survived the high bribes 
they had to administer to secure co-operation, 
and the long struggle they have had to sus¬ 
tain. The Nana, who before the mutiny 
passed his days in sensual indulgence, and 
whom no trifling inducements could bestir 
from the stupid, listless apathy in which he 
squatted upon his haunches; and the vakeel 
who was witty, gay, and fast, are, I suspect, 
crouching together in squalid wretchedness, 
in the jungles of Nepaul, awaiting the long 
deserved coujp de main that shall leave only 
their names to be held in eternal reprobation. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


61 


CHAPTER IV. 

OUTBREAK OF MUTINY AT CAWNPORE—MILITARY ARRANGE¬ 
MENTS FOR DEFENCE—FIRST SHOT—SUFFERINGS OF 
BESIEGED—THE OUTPICKET STATION—PRISONERS TAKEN 
—AN AMAZONIAN GUARD—INTENSE HEAT—COMMISSARIAT 
ARRANGEMENTS. 


Early on the morning of Sunday the 7th 
of June, all the officers were called into the 
intrenchmenfcs, in consequence of the recep¬ 
tion of a letter by Sir Hugh Wheeler from the 
Nana, in which he declared his intention of at 
once attacking us. With such expedition was 
the summons obeyed, that we were compelled 
to leave all our goods and chattels to fall a 
prey to the ravages of the sepoys; and after 
they had appropriated all movables of value 
they set fire to the bungalows. While in 
happy England the Sabbath bells were ringing, 

E 


62 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 


in the day of peace and rest, we were in sus¬ 
pense peering over our mud-wall at the de¬ 
structive flames that were consuming all our 
possessions, and expecting the more dreaded 
fire that was to be aimed at the persons of 
hundreds of women and children about us. 
Very few of our number had secured a single 
change of raiment; some, like myself, were 
only partially dressed, and even in the be¬ 
ginning of our defence, we were like a 
band of seafarers who had taken to a raft to 
escape their burning ship. Upon my asking 
Brigadier Jack if I might run to the cafe for 
some refreshment, he informed me that the 
General’s order was most peremptory that not 
a soul should be permitted to leave our quar¬ 
ters, as the attack was momentarily expected. 
In the course of a short time the whole of the 
men capable of bearing arms were called 
together, and told off in batches under their 
respective officers. A reference to the en¬ 
graved plan of the position will enable the 
reader to understand the following details of 
the defence. 

On the north, Major Vibart of the 2d 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 63 

Cavalry, assisted by Captain Jenkins, held the 
redan, which was an earthwork defending the 
whole of the northern side. At the north-east 
battery, Lieutenant Ashe of the Oude Irregular 
Artillery, commanded one twenty-four-pounder- 
howitzer and two .nine-pounders, assisted by 
Lieutenant Sotheby. Captain Kempland, 56th 
Native Infantry, was posted on the south side. 
Lieut. Eckford, of the Artillery, had charge of the 
south-east battery with three nine-pounders, 
assisted by Lieutenant Burney, also of the 
Artillery, and’Lieutenant Delafosse, of the 53d 
Native Infantry. The main-guard, from south 
to west, was held by Lieutenant Turnbull, 
13th Native Infantry. On the west, Lieu¬ 
tenant C. Dempster commanded three nine- 
pounders, assisted by Lieutenant Martin. 
Flanking the west battery the little rifled 
three-pounder was stationed, with a detach¬ 
ment under the command of Major Prout, 56th 
Native Infantry, and on the north-west Cap¬ 
tain Whiting held the command. The general 
command of the artillery was given to Colonel 
Larkins, but in consequence of the shattered 
state of that officer's health, he was able to 
e 2 


64 


THE STORY OF C AWN PORE. 


take but a small part in the defence. At 
each of the batteries, infantry were posted 
fifteen paces apart, under the cover of the 
mud wall, four feet in height: this service was 
shared by combatants and non-combatants 
alike, without any relief; each man had at least 
three loaded muskets by his side, with bayonet 
fixed in case of assault; but in most instances 
our trained men had as many as seven, and 
even eight muskets each. The batteries were 
none of them masked or fortified in any way, 
and the gunners were in consequence exposed 
to a most murderous fire. It will be seen in 
the plan of the siege that a number of barracks 
running up from the Allahabad Road com¬ 
manded our intrenchments. On this account 
a detachment of our limited force was placed 
in one of them. No. 4. They consisted chiefly 
of civil engineers who had been connected with 
the railway works. The whole of these ar¬ 
rangements for the defence were made by 
General Wheeler and Captain Moore of Her 
Majesty’s 32d Root. As soon as all these 
positions had been occupied, Lieutenant Ashe, 
with about twenty or thirty volunteers, took 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 65 

liis guns out to reconnoitre, as we heard the 
sound of the approaching foe. After going out 
about five hundred yards, they caught sight 
of the enemy, in possession of one of the canal 
bridges, close by the lines of the 1st Native 
Infantry. They came back at a trot into the 
intrenchment; but Lieutenant Ashburner, who 
was one of the number, was never seen or 
heard of again. It was supposed that his 
horse bolted with him into the sepoy ranks, 
and that he was cut up by them instantly. 
Mr. Murphy, who had been attached to the 
railway corps, went out of the intrenchments 
and came back severely wounded by a musket- 
ball ; he died the same day, and was the only 
one of our slain buried in a coffin, one having 
been found in the hospital. This gentleman, 
and Mrs. Wade, who died of fever, were the 
only persons interred inside the intrenchment. 
Shortly after the return of Lieutenant Ashe, the 
first shot fired by the mutineers came from a 
nine-pounder, on the north-west ; it struck the 
crest of the mud wall and glided over into the 
puckah-roofed barrack. This was about 10 
o’clock a . m .; a large party of ladies and chil- 


66 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

dren were outside the barrack; the consterna¬ 
tion caused amongst them was indescribable; 
the bugle-call sent every man of us instantly 
to his post, many of us carrying in our ears, 
for the first time, the peculiar whizzing of 
round shot, with which we were to become so 
familiar. As the day advanced, the enemy’s 
fire grew hotter and more dangerous, in con¬ 
sequence of their getting the guns into po¬ 
sition. The first casualty occurred at the west 
battery; M‘Guire, a gunner, being killed by a 
round shot; the poor fellow was covered with 
a blanket and left in the trench till nightfall. 
Several of us saw the ball bounding toward 
us, and he also evidently saw it, but, like many 
others whom I saw fall at different times, he 
seemed fascinated to the spot. All through 
this first weary day the shrieks of the women 
and children were terrific; as often as the balls 
struck the walls of the barracks their wailings 
were heart-rending, but after the initiation of 
that first day, they had learnt silence, and 
never uttered a sound except when groaning 
from the horrible mutilations they had to 
endure. When night sheltered them, our 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 67 

cowardly assailants closed in upon the in- 
trenchments, and harassed us with incessant 
volleys of musketry. Waiting the assault that 
we supposed to be impending, not a man 
closed his eyes in sleep, and throughout the 
whole siege, snatches of troubled slumber under 
the cover of the wall, was all the relief the 
combatants could obtain. The ping-ping of 
rifle bullets would break short dreams of home 
or of approaching relief, pleasant visions made 
horrible by waking to the state of things 
around; and if it were so with men of mature 
years, sustained by the fulness of physical 
strength, how much more terrific were the 
nights passed inside those barracks by our 
women and children ! As often as the shout 
of our sentinels was heard, each half-hour 
sounding the “ All’s well,” the spot from which 
the voice proceeded became the centre for 
hundreds of bullets. At different degrees of 
distance, from fifty to four hundred yards and 
more, they hovered about during the hours of 
darkness, always measuring the range by day¬ 
light, and then pouring in from under the cover 
of adjacent buildings or ruins of buildings, the 


68 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


fire of their artillery, or rather of our artillery 
turned against us. The execution committed 
by the twenty-four-pounders they had was 
terrific, though they were not always a match 
for the devices we adopted to divert their aim. 
When we wanted to create a diversion, we 
used to pile up some of the muskets behind 
the mud wall, and mount them with hats and 
shakos, and then allow the sepoys to expend 
their powder on these dummies, while we went 
elsewhere. 

But if the intrenched position was one of 
peril, that of the outpicket in barrack No. 4 
was even more so. The railway gentlemen 
held this post for three entire days, without 
any military superintendence wdiatever, and 
they distinguished themselves greatly by their 
skill and courage. I remember particularly 
Messrs. Heberden, Latouche, and Miller as 
prominent in the midst of these undisciplined 
soldiers for their eminently good service. 
Their sharp sight and accurate knowledge of 
distances acquired in surveying, had made 
these gentlemen invaluable as marksmen, while 
still higher moral qualities constituted them 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


69 


an addition to our force not to be estimated 
by their limited numbers. They had emi¬ 
grated to the east in the expectation of attain¬ 
ing distinction in their own peaceful profes¬ 
sion, but they did not disgrace the soldier’s 
stern and self-denying labours when events 
unexpectedly involved them therein. The 
whole line of these barracks was in the course 
of erection when the siege began; they were 
all built of red brick, and about two hundred 
feet each in length. The walls of No. 1 were 
seven feet high, No. 2 had been raised forty 
feet. No. 3 about the same height, No. 4 had 
a temporary roof, which had been covered in 
for the shelter of the masons over one of its 
verandahs ; Nos. 5, 6, and 7 were about 
seven or eight feet in height, no floors had 
been laid in any of them, and the ground 
both within and without these skeleton works 
was thickly covered with piles of bricks, and 
the various debris incidental to the progress of 
large works. Creeping up by hundreds under 
the cover of these walls, the sepoys pressed so 
heavily upon the occupants of the barrack 
No. 4, that the general soon found it necessary * 


70 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


to strengthen them with a military command. 
Accordingly Captain Jenkins, of the 2d Ca¬ 
valry, headed this fine volunteer force, only, 
however, sixteen in number beside their 
captain. Foiled in all their efforts to surprise 
this party, the sepoys in a few days occupied 
barrack No. 1, and thereupon Lieutenant 
Glanville, of the 2d Bengal Fusiliers, was 
posted with a detachment of sixteen men in 
barrack No. 2, which, as it was only 200 yards 
from the intrenchment, became the key of the 
position. This gallant officer, after two or 
three days, was dangerously wounded and 
carried into barrack No. 4, as all the incapaci¬ 
tated ones belonging to these outposts were 
nursed in one of these barracks under the 
care of Dr. D. Macaulay, who signalized him¬ 
self by the most unremitting attentions and 
exertions on their behalf. Glanville’s post was 
in the first instance supplied by Captain 
Elmes of the 1st Native Infantry, but this 
latter officer was shortly relieved by myself, 
passed over from the main guard, as Captain 
Moore required his presence elsewhere. It 
was most harassing work to stand hour after 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


71 


hour, watching for the approach of the rebels. 
By daylight we did manage to get a little 
rest, as one or two were sufficient then to keep 
the look out; and as well as the sun with its 
intense heat would permit, we used to squeeze 
down between the sharp edges of brickbats 
and get a nap, sweeter than that often obtained 
in beds of down, though I am sure that in a 
whole fortnight I did not get two hours of 
consecutive sleep. As soon as night set in, 
all hands were required on the look out, and 
we stood through the weary hours with mus¬ 
kets at the charge, peering out into the dark¬ 
ness, and as soon as a flash from the adjacent 
barrack indicated the whereabouts of the foe, 
we lodged our bullets in the same locality. 
Our greatest apprehensions were always ex¬ 
cited when they ceased to fire, as this was 
invariably the prelude to a coming attack. 
Then, we seventeen men had to hold that 
barrack No. 2 against a black swarm compas¬ 
sing us about like bees, and had it not been 
for their most surprising cowardice in attack, 
we could not have held the place for four and 
twenty hours. In order to keep us as fully 


72 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


acquainted as possible with their movements, 
I had a crow’s-nest constructed twenty feet 
from the ground; it was made of some of the 
building materials lying about the place. By 
turns of an hour each, my men were posted up 
there, and through a loop-hole could overlook 
the movements of our troublesome neighbours, 
and telegraph to us beneath. As soon as any 
intruder quitted barrack No. l,the signal-man 
fired at him. One of our party, Lieutenant 
Stirling, spent many hours in this elevated 
post, and as he was most expert with his 
rifle, it is quite impossible to conjecture the 
results, in the number of sepoys brought 
down by his gun. 

For all the ammunition required in the out¬ 
posts we had to send across to the intrench- 
ment, as the field magazines were under cover 
of the mud wall. Such supplies were always 
obtained by volunteers, wdio had to run the 
gauntlet under the fire of the sepoy musketry, 
as they kept a continual look out from barrack 
No. 1, to fire at parties going to and fro 
between the outposts and head-quarters. It 
was no trifle, under any circumstances, to hop, 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. ' 78 

skip, and jump to the covering place at half 
the distance in the open, but the ammunition 
bearers were exposed to conditions that any 
insurance company would write down doubly- 
hazardous. There was no difficulty, however, 
in obtaining the services of men willing to 
undertake the perilous but necessary duty. 
Two men of the picket, who acted as cooks, 
performed this dangerous journey daily, when 
they went for our miserable dole of food; and 
in consequence of undergoing this hazard con¬ 
tinually, these cooks were exempt from all 
night duty. If ever men deserved the 
Victoria-cross these poor fellows did; nor 
were they the only ones of our garrison who 
in all probability would have earned this dis¬ 
tinction, so dear to the soldier of modern 
times. But as the heroes before Agamemnon 
lost their meed of applause for want of a poet, 
so some in later times, through the loss of 
superior officers, and having none left to 
report upon their deeds, have only reserved to 
them the consciousness of having done all 
that human endurance could accomplish to 
sustain the honour of the British arms. 


74 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


The principal work devolving upon these 
outpickets was that of clearing the adjacent 
barracks of our assailants. They would come 
up from building to building, in a rabble of 
some hundreds, and occasionally of thousands, 
as though intent upon storming our position. 
Their bugles sounded the advance and the 
charge, but no inducement could make them 
quit the safe side of Nos. 1 and 5; from the win¬ 
dows of these barracks they could pepper away 
upon our walls, yelling defiance, abusing us 
in the most hellish language, brandishing their 
swords, and striking up a war-dance. Some 
of these fanatics, under the influence of infuri¬ 
ating doses of bhang, would come out into 
the open and perform, but at the inevitable 
cost of life. Our combined pickets always 
swept through these barracks once, and some¬ 
times twice a-day, in chase of the foe. They 
scarcely ever stood for a hand-to-hand fight, 
but heaps of them were left dead as the result 
of these sallies. As soon as we had expelled 
them from their covert, the musketry and 
artillery of the intrenched party played upon 
them furiously, and this process inspired them 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


75 


with a wholesome terror of approaching us. 
In some of these charges we occasionally 
bagged a live prisoner or two, but whether 
fiom the fatal precision of our fire, or suicide 
on the part of the wounded, it was strangely 
rare to see them otherwise than quite dead. 
When we did bring them in alive they 
expressed sorrow for their conduct, and 
attributed the mutiny to the Ilclwcl , meaning 
thereby an invisible influence exercised over 
them by the devil. It is a curious circum¬ 
stance, that the Hindoos associate almost all 
calamity with the wind, and in not a few 
parts of India, the name by which the mutiny 
has been designated is the devil’s wind. In 
the first instance, a prisoner we had taken in 
the barracks, who had been a private in the 
1st Native Infantry, was sent by us into the 
main-guard, but he effected his escape. It w r as 
not desirable that very frequent accounts of our 
destitute condition should be conveyed to the 
rebels ; so in future, to remedy this evil, all we 
took were despatched without reference to 
head-quarters. One night, eleven prisoners 
were placed together in the main-guard, and 


76 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


as all available strength was required in 
action, the wife of a private in her Majesty’s 
32d Regiment, Mrs. Widdow T son, volunteered 
to keep guard over them with a drawn sword. 
They were only secured by a rope, which 
fastened them wrist to wrist, but they sat 
motionless upon the ground for more than an 
hour, under the Amazonian surveillance to 
which they were subjected. Presently, when 
the picket returned, and they were placed 
under masculine protection, they all contrived 
to escape. Whatever was the influence that 
restrained them while under their female 
warder, it must be confessed that Mrs.Widdow- 
son was as much blessed with great courage, 
as she was distinguished by rare physical 
strength. These prisoners taken from the 
sepoys always gave utterance to profuse ex¬ 
clamations of wonder at our holding out from 
day to day as we did, and looked upon the 
cause as something altogether supernatural; 
they had all felt sure that we must be over¬ 
powered by their numbers, or at least be 
utterly destroyed by the intense heat of the 
season. This last opinion will not be thought 


THE STORY OF OAWNPORE. 77 

unreasonable when I say, that it was often 
quite impossible to touch the barrel of a gun, 
and once or twice muskets went off at mid¬ 
day, either from the sun exploding their caps, 
or from the fiery heat of the metal. Across the 
plain, the mirage, which only makes its ap¬ 
pearance in extremely hot seasons, painted its 
fantastic scenes, sometimes of forest scenery, 
sometimes of water, but always extending to 
a vast distance, and presenting a strange con¬ 
trast in its unbroken stillness to the perturbed 
life within our mud walls. We must have 
suffered the most frightful aggravations of 
epidemic disease, from the putrefying remains 
of the dead around us, but for the kind ser¬ 
vices of the vultures and adjutant-birds, which 
effectually cleared the neighbourhood of all 
such dangerous and offensive relics. It is 
truly surprising that, in consequence of the 
utter inadequacy of our food, we did not all 
perish from the effects of the trying atmo¬ 
sphere, indicated by a thermometer ranging 
from 120° to 138°. As long as the luxuries 
lasted, which was certainly not more than the 
first week, they were equally divided, without 


78 


THE STOEY OF CAWNFORE. 


regard to rank, under the superintendence of 
the commissariat officer, Captain W.Williamson, 
41st Native Infantry. It was owing to the in¬ 
defatigable exertions of this estimable man that 
any food at all was brought into the intrench- 
ment. Before the commencement of the siege, 
and even after the cantonment had fallen into 
the possession of the rebels, Captain William¬ 
son went out with a party of volunteers, and 
brought in some barrels of rum and beer. 
The indiscriminate supply of provisions afford¬ 
ed some truly comical scenes during the first 
few days. Here might have been seen a 
private trudging away from the main-guard 
laden with a bottle of champagne, a tin of 
preserved herrings, and a pot of jam for his 
mess allowance ; there would be another with 
salmon, rum, and sweetmeats, for his inherit¬ 
ance. The rice and flour were then sacred 
to the women and children; but this luxuriant 
feeding soon came to an end, and all were 
reduced to the monotonous and scanty allow¬ 
ance of one meal a day, consisting of a handful 
of split peas and a handful of flour, certainly 
not more than half a pint together, for the 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 79 

daily ration. In one corner of my barrack 
we used to light a fire, and when the cooks 
had made a species of gruel or porridge it 
was served round in tin pots, and many a 
poor hungry fellow found his appetite whetted 
rather than appeased by the meagre allotment. 
On one occasion, we were warily closing 
together to eat our evening meal, when an 
unexpected and most unwelcome guest joined 
our party. We heard a mortar fired, and 
the hissing shell kindly announced its ap¬ 
proach towards us; we thought at first it 
would clear the barrack, but such was not its 
destiny; it entered the chamber we were occu- 
pyiflgj struck one of the walls, rebounded over 
our heads, and as it touched the ground and 
burst, we cleared the room, and all reached the 
verandah in safety. That ten-inch missile had 
nearly terminated our entertainment, but, as 
the ancients used to say, “ the stomach has no 
ears/’ so we promptly returned to the kettle, 
and shelled out its contents. 


80 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


CHAPTER V. 

EXPEDIENTS FOR FOOD—HORSE SOUP—THE WELL IN THE 
INTRENCHMENT—THE CAPTAIN OF THE WELL—CHILDREN 
PARCHED WITH THIRST—INSANITY—THE WELL OUTSIDE 
THE INTRENCHMENT—THE BARRACKS INSIDE THE WALL— 
THE FIRE—ATTEMPTED ATTACK OF THE SEPOYS—LOSS OF 
MEDICAL STORES—TREASURE FOUND AND LOST. 


Now and then our scanty and poor dietary 
was improved by the addition of some liorse- 
soup, the victims being such as we could 
shoot when the cavalry came near enough for 
that purpose ; and indeed in our famished con¬ 
dition it was a more cherished object to pot a 
horse, if possible, than to trouble his rider. 
The intrenched people were so fortunate as 
to shoot down a Brahminee bull that came 
grazing within limits where his sanctity was 
not respected; but having floored it, how was 
the prey to be secured ? Hie labor , hoc ojrns 
est. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


81 


Mrs. Glass’s recipe, “First catch your hare,” 
was never more appropriate. Presently a 
volunteer party was formed to take this bull 
by the horns, no trifle, since the distance 
from the wall was full three hundred yards, 
and the project involved the certainty of 
encountering twice three hundred bullets. 
But beef was scarce, and led on by Captain 
Moore, eight or ten accordingly went out after 
the animal. They took with them a strong rope, 
fastened it round the hind legs and between 
the horns of the beast, and in the midst of the 
cheers from behind the mud-wall, a sharp 
fusilade from the rebels, diversified with one 
or two round shots, they accomplished their 
object. Two or three ugly wounds were not 
thought too high a price to pay for this con¬ 
tribution to the commissariat. The costly 
bull was soon made into soup, but none of it 
reached us in the outposts more palpably than 
in its irritating odour. Sometimes, however, 
we in the outposts had meat when there was 
none at head-quarters. We once saw the 
sepoys bring up a nine*pounder to barrack 
No. 6, and great expectations were enter- 


82 


THE ST011Y OF CAWNPORE. 


tained that the half-dozen artillery-bullocks 
employed in that piece of service might by a 
little ingenuity, or at least some of them, be 
shortly transformed into stew on our behalf. 
Not a few of my men would have given a 
right arm for a good cut out of the sides, and 
not a few of their officers would have bartered 
a letter of credit on the army-agents for the 
same privilege. But the pandies artfully kept 
the horned treasure under cover. We watched 
the ends of the distant walls in vain. Some 
of our famished Esaus would have made for 
the cannon’s mouth, and have sold their lives, 
but it might not be; and our hungry disgust 
had well nigh sunk into despair, when an old 
knacker came into range, that had belonged to 
an Irregular Cavalry-man. He was down by a 
shot like lightning, brought into the barrack, 
and hewn up. We did not wait to skin the 
prey, nor waste any time in consultation upon 
its anatomical arrangements; no scientific 
butchery was considered necessary in its 
subdivision. Lump, thump, whack, went non¬ 
descript pieces of flesh into the fire, and, not¬ 
withstanding its decided claims to veneration 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


83 


on the score of antiquity, we thought it a 
more savoury meal than any of the recherche 
culinary curiosities of the lamented Soyer. 
The two pickets, thirty-four in number, dis¬ 
posed of the horse in two meals. The head, 
and some mysteries of the body, we stewed 
into soup, and liberally sent to fair friends 
in the intrenchment, without designating its 
nature, or without being required to satisfy 
any scruples upon that head. Though, alas, 
death, which marked every event in our career, 
sealed this also, for Captain Halliday, who had 
come across to visit my neighbour, Captain 
Jenkins, was carrying back some of the said 
soup for his wife, when he was shot dead 
between the puckah-barrack and the main- 
guard. Further on in the history of the siege, 
when our privation was even greater than on 
the last occasion, a stray dog approached us. 
The cur had wandered from the sepoy-barrack, 
and every possible blandishment was employed 
by my men to tempt the canine adventurer 
into the soup-kettle. Two or three minutes 
subsequently to my seeing him doubtfully 
trotting across the open, I was offered some of 


84 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


his semi-roasted fabric, but that, more scru¬ 
pulous than others, I was obliged to decline. 

Our position behind these unroofed walls, 
was one of intense suffering, in consequence 
of the unmitigated heat of the sun by day, 
and the almost perpetual surprises to which 
we were liable by night. 

My sixteen men consisted in the first 
instance of Ensign Henderson, of the 56th 
Native Infantry, five or six of the Madras 
Fusiliers, two platelayers from the railway- 
works, and some men of the 84th Regi¬ 
ment. This first instalment was soon dis¬ 
abled. The Madras Fusiliers were armed 
with the Enfield rifle, and consequently they 
had to bear the brunt of the attack; they were 
all shot at their posts; several of the 84th also 
fell; but, in consequence of the importance of 
the position, as soon as a loss in my little corps 
was reported, Captain Moore sent me over a 
reinforcement from the intrenchment. Some- * 
times a civilian, sometimes a soldier came. 
The orders given us were, not to surrender 
with our lives, and we did our best to obey 
them, though it was only by an amount of 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 85 

fatigue that in the retrospect now seems 
scarcely possible to have been a fact, and by 
the perpetration of such wholesale carnage 
that nothing could have justified in us but 
the instinct of self-preservation, and I trust 
the equally strong determination to shelter 
the women and children to the latest moment. 
There was one advantage in the out-picket 
station, in the fact that we were somewhat 
removed from the sickening spectacles con¬ 
tinually occurring in the intrenchment. Some¬ 
times when relieved by a brother officer for a 
few moments, I have run across to the main- 
guard for a chat with some old chums, or to 
join in the task of attempting to cheer the 
spirits of the women ; but the sight there 
was always of a character to make me return 
to the barrack, relieved by the comparative 
quiet of its seclusion. We certainly had no 
diminished share of the conflict in the bar¬ 
racks, but we had not the heaps of wounded 
sufferers, nor the crowd of helpless ones whose 
agonies nothing could relieve. 

The well in the intrenchment was one of 
the greatest points of danger, as the enemy 


86 


THE ST011Y OF CAWNPORE. 


invariably fired grape upon that spot as soon 
as any person made his appearance there to 
draw water. Even in the dead of night the 
darkness afforded but little protection, as they 
could hear the creaking of the tackle, and 
took the well-known sound as a signal for 
instantly opening with their artillery upon the 
suttlers. These were chiefly privates, who 
were paid as much as eight or ten shillings 
per bucket. Poor fellows! their earnings 
were of little avail to them; but to their credit 
it must be said, that when money had lost 
its value, by reason of the extremity of our 
danger, they were not less willing to incur the 
risk of drawing for the women and the chil¬ 
dren. The constant riddling of shot soon tore 
away the wood and brickwork that surrounded 
the well, and the labour of drawing became 
much more prolonged and perilous. The 
water was between sixty and seventy feet 
from the surface of the ground, and wifh 
mere hand over hand labour it was wearisome 
work. My friend, John McKillop, of the Civil 
Service, greatly distinguished himself here ; he 
became self-constituted captain of the well. 



THE STORY OE CAWNPORE, 87 

He jocosely said that he was no fighting man, 
but would make himself useful where he could, 
and accordingly he took this post; drawing 
for the supply of the women and the children 
as often as he could. It was less than a week 
alter he had undertaken this self-denying 
service, when his numerous escapes were 
followed by a grape-shot wound in the groin, 
and speedy death. Disinterested even in 
death, his last words were an earnest entreaty 
that somebody would go and draw water for 
a lady to whom he had promised it. The 
sufferings of the women and children from 
thirst were intense, and the men could scarcely 
endure the cries for drink which were almost 
perpetual from the poor little babes, terribly 
unconscious they were, most of them, of the 
great, great, cost at which only it could be 
procured. I have seen the children of my 
brother officers sucking the pieces of old water- 
bags, putting scraps of canvas and leather 
straps into the mouth to try and get a single 
drop of moisture upon their parched lips. 
Not even a pint of water was to be had for 
washing from the commencement to the close 


88 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


of the siege; and those only who have lived in 
India can imagine the calamity of such a 
privation to delicate women who had been 
accustomed to the most frequent and copious 
ablutions as a necessary of existence. Had 
the relieving force which we all thought to 
have been on its way from Calcutta ever seen 
our beleaguered party, strange indeed would 
the appearance presented by any of us after 
the first week or ten days have seemed to 
them. 

Tattered in clothing, begrimed with dirt, 
emaciated in countenance, were all without 
exception; faces that had been beautiful were 
now chiselled with deep furrows; haggard 
despair seated itself where there had been a 
month before only smiles. Some were sinking 
into the settled vacancy of look which marked 
insanity. The old, babbling with confirmed 
imbecility, and the young raving in n«t a 
few cases with wild mania; while only the 
strongest retained the calmness demanded by 
the occasion. And yet, looking back upon 
the horrible straits to which the women were 
driven, the maintenance of modesty and deli- 


L 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 89 

cate feeling by them to the last, is one of the 
greatest marvels of the heart-rending memories 
of those twenty-one days. 

Besides the well within the intrenchment, 
to which reference has been made, there was 
another close to barrack No. 3, upon which 
we looked, and to which we often repaired 
with sorrowing hearts. We drew no water 
there, it was our cemetery; and in three weeks 
we buried therein two hundred and fifty of 
our number. 

When General Havelock recovered Cawnpore 
he gave orders to fill up this vast grave, and 

THE MOUND OF EARTH WHICH MARKS THAT 
MEMORABLE SPOT WAITS FOR THE MONUMENT 
WHICH WILL I HOPE BEFORE LONG RECORD 
THEIR SERVICES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS WHO 

SLEEP beneath. The burial of Sir John 
Moore, which has been taken to be the type 
of military funerals performed under fire, was 
elaborate in comparison with our task, who, 
with stealthy step, had under cover of the 
night to consign our lost ones in the most 
hurried manner to the deep, which at least 
secured their remains from depredation by 


90 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


carnivorous animals, and from the ignominious 
brutality of more savage men. 

As soon as the siege had commenced, both 
of the barracks inside the intrenchment were 
set apart for the shelter of women and children, 
the worst cases of the invalids of the 32d 
Regiment, together with some of our superior 
officers. The majority of the male refugees 
who availed themselves of this shelter, were 
those who were thoroughly incapacitated by 
age or disease from enduring the toil and the 
heat of the trenches. I deeply regret, how¬ 
ever, to have to record the fact that there was 
one officer of high rank, and in the prime of life, 
who never showed himself outside the walls of 
the barrack, nor took even the slightest part in 
the military operations. This craven-hearted 
man, whose name I withhold out of considera¬ 
tion for the feelings of his surviving relatives, 
seemed not to possess a thought beyond^hat of 
preserving his own worthless life. Throughout 
three weeks of skulking, while women and 
children were daily dying around him, and the 
little band of combatants was being constantly 
thinned by wounds and death, not even the 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


91 


perils of his own wife could rouse this man to 
exertion ; and when at length we had embarked 
at the close of the siege, while our little craft 
was stuck upon a sandbank, no expostulation 
could make him quit the shelter of her bul¬ 
warks, though we were adopting every possible 
expedient to lighten her burden. It was 
positively a relief to us when we found that 
his cowardice was unavailing; and a bullet 
through the boat’s side that despatched him 
caused the only death that we regarded with 
complacency. 

One of the two barracks in the intrenched po¬ 
sition was a strong building, and puckah-roofed, 
that is, covered in with masonry. It had been 
originally the old dragoon hospital, and consisted 
of one long central room, surrounded by others 
of much smaller dimensions. After a day or two 
of the sharp cannonading to which we were 
exposed, all the doors, windows, and frame¬ 
work of this, the best of the two structures, 
were entirely shot away. Not a few of its 
occupants were killed by splinters, and a still 
gr ■iter number by the balls and bullets which 
flew continually through the open spaces, which 


92 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


were soon left without a panel or sash of 
wood to offer any resistance. Others died 
from falling bricks, and pieces of timber dis¬ 
lodged by shot. The second barrack had from 
the commencement excited serious apprehension 
lest its thatched roof should be set on fire. 
An imperfect attempt had been made to cover 
the thatch with tiles and bricks, and any 
materials at hand that would preserve the roof 
from conflagration. But after about a week 
the dreaded calamity came upon us. A car¬ 
case or shell filled with burning materials 
settled in the thatch, and speedily the whole 
barrack was in a blaze. As a part of this 
building had been used for a hospital, it was 
the object of the greatest solicitude to remove 
the poor fellows who lay there suffering from 
wounds and unable to move thems Ives, i rom 
one portion of the barrack the wo aen and the 
children were running out, from another little ' 
parties laden with some heavy burden of 
suffering brotherhood were seeking fh adjacent 
building. As this fire broke out in the even¬ 
ing, the light of the flames made us < aspic nous 
marks for the guns of our brutal assailants. 


the story of cawnpore. 


93 


and without regard to sex or age, or the 
painful and protracted toil of getting out 
the sufferers, they did not cease till long after 
midnight to pour upon us incessant vollies of 
musketry. By means of indomitable perse- 
veiance many a poor agonizing private was 
rescued from the horrible death that seemed 
inevitable, but though all was done that inge¬ 
nuity could suggest, or courage and determi¬ 
nation accomplish, two artillerymen unhappily 
perished in the flames. The livid blaze of 
that burning barrack lighted up many a ter¬ 
rible picture of silent anguish, while the yells 
of the advancing sepoys and the noise of their 
artillery filled the air with sounds that still 
echo in the ears of the only two survivors. 

That was a night indeed to be long remem¬ 
bered. The enemy, imagining that all our 
attention was directed to the burning pile, 
took occasion to plan an assault. They ad¬ 
vanced by hundreds under the shelter of the 
darkness, and without a sound from that side, 
with the intention of storming Ashe's battery, 
and they were allowed to come within sixty 
or eighty yards of the guns, before a piece was 


G 


94 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

fired or a movement made to indicate that 
they were observed. Just when it must have 
appeared to them that their success was cer¬ 
tain, our nine-pounders opened upon them 
with a most destructive charge of grape; the 
men shouldered successive guns which they 
had by their sides ready loaded; every avail¬ 
able piece was discharged right into their 
midst, and in half-an-hour they left a hundred 
corpses in the open. 

In the burnt barrack all our medical stores 
were consumed ; not one of the surgical 
instruments was saved, and from that time 
the agonies of the wounded became most 
intense, and from the utter impossibility of 
extracting bullets, or dressing mutilations, 
casualties were increased in their fatality. It 
was heart-breaking work to see the poor suf¬ 
ferers parched with thirst that could be only 
most scantily relieved, and sinking from fever 
and mortification that we had no appliances 
wherewith to resist. When the ashes of the 
consumed barrack cooled, the men of the 
32 d Regiment, who had been stationed there, 
raked them over with bayonets and swords. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 95 

making diligent search for their lost medals. 
A great many of them were found, though in 
most instances marred by the fire. The fact 
that they would explore after these treasures 
while the sepoys were firing on them, shows 
the high appreciation in which the British 
soldier holds his decorations. One man, of 
the Artillery, discovered three large masses 
of silver in the ruins, supposed to be worth 
about three hundred pounds. He communi¬ 
cated his secret to only one of his com¬ 
panions, and by night they buried the 
spoil just outside Eckford’s battery. Sullivan, 
the confidant, was not to touch this treasure 
unless anything happened to the finder. 
Sullivan lived to escape with Lieutenant 
Delafosse, private Murphy, 84 th Foot, and 
myself; he came back to Cawnpore, was 
immediately seized with cholera, and died. 
While we were in our refuge at Moorar 
Mhow, the artilleryman had communicated his 
secret to Delafosse; in his turn my brother 
officer was taken ill, and told me of the 
hidden spoil. I accordingly went to dig for 
it, and found its nest, but empty. I suppose 
g 2 


96 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

that this metal had been the property of one 
of the numerous merchants who had taken 
refuge with us on the appearance of the 
disturbances. 

I mention this circumstance, and another 
like it, to point out the extreme cunning of 
the natives in the detection of concealed pro¬ 
perty. After we had evacuated the doomed 
hospitals and intrenchment, I believe they 
explored every mite of ground in search of 
spoil. They really must possess the sense of 
smelling gold and silver, from the extraordi¬ 
nary tact they display in its detection. When 
Captain Elmes left the picket in barrack 
No. 2 under my charge, he gave me his gold 
watch, as I had no means of telling the time. 
On the night of our capitulation, I was the 
last to leave the barrack, and in the dark¬ 
ness, thinking to secure the watch, I secreted 
it under some dirt in a brick hole left by a 
scaffold pole, twelve feet from the ground, 
but it was discovered by somebody, as upon 
my return to Cawnpore, it was gone. 

Amongst those who distinguished themselves 
by their energetic exertions during the fire, 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 97 

Lieutenant Ward, of the 56th Native Infantry, 
must not be forgotten. This zealous young 
soldier, who was a son of Admiral Ward, of 
Preswylfa, Glamorgan, in the midst of his 
anxiety to assist in removing the wounded, 
accidentally fell, and ran his sword through 
his leg; but though he suffered much, this 
neither suspended his endeavours at the time 
in question, nor kept him from constant service. 
Luring the latter portion of the siege, he had 
the command at the main-guard, and lived to 
go down to the boats. Lieutenant Ward 
was a model soldier, and his death was a great 
loss to his country; much more so to the 
estimable family of which he was so beloved 
a member; nor was this irreparable bereave¬ 
ment their only share in the bitter cup of 
calamity this tragedy at Cawnpore brought to 
them, for Mr. Heberden, of whom I must 
speak presently, was a most attached friend 
of theirs. Those of my readers who have 
had no acquaintance with the Indian service 
cannot form the remotest idea of the accumu¬ 
lated grief that the year 1857 brought to 
many a happy English home. By reason 


98 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


of intermarriages, long cemented friendships, 
and family ties, the losses sustained were 
in many instances concentrated into small 
circles, into whose midst, sorrow after sorrow 
came with a fatality like that which overtook 
the man who of old time lived in the land 
of Uz. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


99 


CHAPTER YI. 

WOMEN IN THE TRENCHES—THEIR SUFFERINGS FROM 
WOUNDS—BIRTHS AND DEATHS—SUN-STROKE—DEVOTED¬ 
NESS OF THE CHAPLAIN—FREQUENCY OF CASUALTIES— 
INSTANCES OF TERRIBLE MUTILATION—DASH UPON THE 
ENEMY’S GUNS—EXPECTATIONS OF RELIEF—A SPY IN 
THE CAMP. 

After the destruction of the thatched bar¬ 
rack, as that which survived the fire would not 
accommodate the whole party, numbers of 
women and children were compelled to go out 
into the trenches, and not less than two hundred 
of them passed twelve days and nights upon the 
bare ground. Many of these were wives and 
daughters of officers, who had never known 
privation in its mildest form. Efforts were at 
first made to shelter them from the heat by 
erecting canvas stretchers overhead, but as 
often as the paltry covering was put up, it was 



100 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


fired by the enemy’s shells. But our heroic 
sisters did not all give themselves up to de¬ 
spair even yet; they handed round the ammuni¬ 
tion, encouraged the men to the utmost, and 
in their tender solicitude and unremitting 
attention to the wounded, though all smeared 
with powder and covered with dirt, they were 
more to be admired then, than they had often 
been in far different costume, when arrayed 
for the glittering ball-room. 

“ 0 ! woman, in our hours of ease, 

Inconstant, coy, and hard to please, 

And variable as the shade 
By the light quiv’ring aspen made, 

When pain and sickness wring the brow, 

A ministering angel thou.” 

Alas! we had not only abundant scope for 
their kind soothing smiles, but occasion also 
for them to display patience under their own 
terrible mutilations by shot and shell. On 
one occasion, a shell from the enemy’s mortar- 
battery fell into Whiting’s battery, into the 
midst of a group of soldiers’ wives who were 
sitting together in the trench,—seven of them 
were killed and wounded ; Mr. Cox, formerly 


the STORY OF CAYVNPORE. 101 

of the 1st Bengal Fusiliers, lost both his legs 
and died; and Mr. Jacobi, a watch-maker, 
was also killed by that one missile. 

Mis. W hite, a private’s wife, was walking 
with her husband under cover, as they thought, 
of the w r all, her twin children were one in each 
arm, when a single bullet passed through her 
husband; killing him, it passed also through 
both her arms, breaking them, and close be¬ 
side the breathless husband and father fell the 
widow and her babes ; one of the latter being 
also severely wounded. I saw her afterwards 
in the main-guard lying upon her back, with 
the two children, twins, laid one at each 
breast, while the mother’s bosom refused not 
what her arms had no power to administer. 
Assuredly no imagination or invention ever 
devised such pictures as this most horrible 
siege was constantly presenting to our view. 

Mrs. Williams, the widow of Colonel Wil¬ 
liams, after losing her husband early in the 
siege from apoplexy supervening upon a wound, 
w~as herself shot in the face; she lingered two 
days in frightful suffering and disfigurement, 
all the time attended by her intrepid daughter. 


102 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

who was herself suffering from a bullet- wound 
right through the shoulder-blade. 

An ayah, while nursing the infant child of 
Lieutenant J. Harris, Bengal Engineers, lost 
both her legs by a round-shot, and the little 
innocent was picked off the ground suffused 
in its nurse’s blood, but completely fref from 
injury. While we were at Cuttack the mother 
of this infant had died, and Captain and Mrs. 
Belson kindly undertook its charge; in what 
manner the poor little nursling s short but 
troubled life was terminated I know not. 

Miss Brightman, the sister of Mrs. Harris, 
died of fever consequent upon the fatigue she 
had incurred in nursing lieutenant Martin, 
who was wounded in the lungs. Martin 
was quite young, he only reached Cawnpore 
a day or two before the outbreak. He said 
to me one day soon after his arrival, “ I 
should like to see some practice with these 
things,” pointing to a heap of shells. He 
soon saw far more of that practice than most 
soldiers three times his age. 

Mrs. Evans, the wife of Major Evans, 
Bombay Native Infantry, was killed by 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. ] 03 

falling bricks, displaced by round-shot. My 
friend, Major Evans, had to endure the most 
intense solicitude for his beloved wife, while 
he was engaged in the defence of Lucknow. 

Mrs. Reynolds, the wife of Captain Rey¬ 
nolds, 53d Native Infantry, was wounded in 
the wrist by a musket-ball, and died of fever 
in consequence of there being no instruments 
or materials to alleviate her sufferings. Her 
husband had been previously killed by a round- 
shot, which took off his arm. An Eurasian 
and her daughter, crouching behind an empty 
barrel, were both instantly killed by one shot. 

The children were a constant source of soli¬ 
citude to the intrenched party. Sometimes 
the little things, not old enough to have the 
instinct for liberty crushed by the presence of 
death, would run away from their mothers 
and play about under the barrack walls, and 
even on these, the incarnate fiends would fire 
their muskets, and not a few were slain and 
wounded thus. 

One poor woman, a private’s wife, ran out 
from the cover of the barracks with a child in 
each hand, courting relief from her prolonged 


104 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 


anguish by death from the sepoy guns, but a 
private nobly went out and dragged them 
back to a sheltered position. 

There were children born as well as dying in 
these terrible times, and three or four mothers 
had to undergo the sufferings of maternity in 
a crisis that left none of that hope and joy 
which compensate the hour of agony. One 
of the most painful of these cases was that 
of Mrs. Darby, the wife of a surgeon in the 
Company’s service. Her husband had been 
ordered to Lucknow immediately before the 
mutiny, and was killed there. Mrs. Darby 
survived her accouchement, and was, I believe, 
one of those who perished in the boats. 

Besides such constantly occurring and 
frightful spectacles as these, deaths from sun¬ 
stroke and fever were frequently happening. 
Colonel Williams, 56th Native Infantry, Major 
Prout, Sir George Parker, and several of the 
privates died thus. The fatal symptoms were 
headache and drowsiness, followed by vomiting 
and gradual insensibility, which terminated in 
death. Privation, and the influence of the 
horrible sights which day after day presented, 


THE STOIIY OF CAWNPORE. 105 

drove some to insanity—such was the case 
with one of the Missionaries of the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel, the Rev. Mr. 
Haycock. He had been accustomed to bring 
out his aged mother every evening into the 
verandah, for a short relief from the fetid 
atmosphere within the barrack walls; the old 
lady was at length severely wounded, and her 
acute sufferings overcame the son’s reason, 
and he died a raving maniac. There was also 
another clergyman connected with the Propa¬ 
gation Society in the intrenchment, the Rev. 
Mr. Cockey, though I am not aware of the 
manner in which he met his death. The 
station-chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Moncrieff, was 
most indefatigable in the performance of his 
ministry of mercy with the wounded and the 
dying. Public worship in any combined form 
was quite out of the question, but this devoted 
clergyman went from post to post reading 
prayers while we stood to arms. Short and 
interrupted as these services were, they proved 
an invaluable privilege, and there was a ter¬ 
rible reality about them, since in each such 
solemnity one or more of the little group 


106 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


gathered about the person of their instructor 
was sure to be present for the last time. Mr. 
Moncrieff was held in high estimation by the 
whole garrison before the mutiny, on account 
of the zealous manner in which he discharged 
the duties of his sacred office, but his self- 
denial and constancy in the thickest of our 
perils made him yet more greatly beloved by 
us all. The Romish priest was the only well- 
fed man in our party, for the Irish privates 
used to contribute from their scanty rations 
for his support: he died about the middle of 
the siege from sun-stroke or apoplexy. 

The frequency of our casualties from wounds 
may be best understood by the history of one 
short hour. Lieutenant Prole had come to 
the main-guard to see Armstrong, the adjutant 
of the 53d Native Infantry, who was unwell. 
While engaged in conversation with the invalid, 
Prole was struck by a musket-ball in the thigh 
and fell to the ground. I put his arm upon 
my shoulder, and holding him round the waist, 
endeavoured to hobble across the open to the 
barrack, in order that he might obtain the 
attention of the surgeons there. While thus 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 107 

employed, a ball hit me under the right 
shoulder-blade, and we fell to the ground 
together, and were picked up by some pri¬ 
vates, who dragged us both back to the main- 
guard. While I was lying on the ground, 
woefully sick from the wound, Gilbert Bax 
(48th Native Infantry) came to condole with 
me, when a bullet pierced his shoulder-blade, 
causing a wound from which he died before 
the termination of the siege. 

Mr. Hillersden, the collecting magistrate of 
Cawnpore, and brother of Major Hillersden, 
who commanded the 53d Natiye Infantry, was 
standing in the verandah of the puckah-roofed 
barrack in conversation with his wife, who had 
only recently recovered from her accouchement, 
when a round-shot from the mess-house of the 
56th Native Infantry completely disembowelled 
him. His wife only survived him two or three 
days; she was killed by a number of falling 
bricks dislodged by a shot and causing con¬ 
cussion of the brain. Mrs. Hillersden was a 
most accomplished lady, and by reason of her 
cheerfulness, amiability, and piety, universally 
a favourite at the station. 


108 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


In the same barrack, Lieutenant G. R. 
Wheeler, son and aide-de-camp of the general, 
was sitting upon a sofa, fainting from a wound 
he had received in the trenches; his sister 
was fanning him, when a round shot entered 
the doorway, and left him a headless trunk; 
one sister at his feet, and father, mother, 
and another sister, in different parts of the 
same room, were witnesses of the appalling 
spectacle. Three officers, belonging to the 
same regiment with Lieutenant Wheeler, the 
1st Native Infantry, viz. Lieutenants Smith and 
Redman, and Ensign Supple, had their heads 
taken off by round shots in the redan. 

Lieutenant Dempster, who left a wife and 
four children, fell mortally wounded between 
Whiting’s battery and the puckah-roofed bar¬ 
rack. 

Lieutenant Jervis, of the Engineers, fell in 
the same locality. He always scorned to run, 
and while calmly walking across the open, in 
the midst of a shower of bullets, some of us 
cried out to him, “ Run, Jervis! run! ” but 
he refused, and was killed by a bullet through 
his heart. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 109 

Mr. Jack, brother of the brigadier, who was 
on a visit from Australia, was hit by a round- 
shot, which carried away his left leg. As this 
occurred before the destruction of the instru¬ 
ments, he underwent amputation, but sank 
under the operation. 

Colonel Ewart, a brave and clever man, was 
severely wounded in the arm early in the pro¬ 
ceedings, and was entirely disabled from any 
participation in the defence. 

Captain Kempland suffered so much from 
the heat, that although not wounded, he was 
also utterly prostrate and non-combatant. His 
European man-servant made an attempt to 
get down the river with his master’s baggage, 
but was taken by the sepoys and murdered. 

Lieutenant R. Quin died of fever. His 
brother, C. Quin, survived the siege, and was 
left severely wounded in the boat at Sooraj- 
pore. 

Ensign Dowson suffered severely from sun¬ 
stroke, and Ensign Foreman was wounded in 
the leg. Both of these youths perished at the 
boats. 

Major Lindsay was struck in the face by 


H 


110 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


the splinters caused by a round-shot; he lay 
for a few days in total blindness and extreme 
pain, when death came to his relief. His dis¬ 
consolate widow followed him a day or two 
afterwards, slain by grief. 

Mr. Heberden, of the railway-service, was 
handing one of the ladies some water, when a 
charge of grape entered the barrack, and a shot 
passed through both his hips, leaving an awful 
wound. He lay for a whole week upon his face, 
and was carried upon a mattrass down to the 
boats, where he died. The fortitude he had 
shown in active service did not forsake him 
during his extraordinary sufferings, for not a 
murmur escaped his lips. 

Lieutenant Eckford, while sitting in the 
verandah, was struck by a round-shot in the 
heart, causing instant death. He was an 
excellent artillery-officer, and could ill be 
spared; besides his high military accomplish¬ 
ments this gentleman was an admirable lin¬ 
guist, and his death was a great loss to his 
country. To our enfeebled community these 
bereavements were a deplorable calamity. 

Such are some specimens of the horrors 


Ill 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

endured, but by no means a summary of the 
long catalogue of lamentation and woe. Many 
casualties occurred of which I never heard, 
some probably which I have forgotten. Long 
and painful as this narrative of suffering may 
prove to the reader, he will not forget that all 
this was but on the surface; the agony of 
mind, the tortures of despair, the memories of 
home, the yearning after the distant children, 
or parents, the secret prayers, and all the 
hidden heart-wounds contained in those bar¬ 
racks, were, and must remain, known onlv to 
God. 

It would be unjust to overlook the fact that 
a large number of the natives shared with us 
our sharp and bitter troubles. There were 
not a few native servants who remained in the 
intrenchment with their masters. Three of 
them, in the service of Lieutenant Bridges, 
were killed by one shell. One, belonging to 
Lieutenant Goad, 56th Native Infantry, was 
crossing to barrack No. 2 with some food in his 
hand, and was shot through the head. Several 
outlived the siege, and died at the time of 
embarkation; some two or three escaped after 
h 2 


112 THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 

tlie capitulation, and from these persons the 
various and conflicting statements of our his¬ 
tory have come piecemeal into the Indian and 
English newspapers. 

Soon after the destruction of the hospital, 
it was determined upon by Captain Moore to 
make a dash upon the enemy’s guns, in the 
hope of silencing some of these destructive 
weapons, and thus lessening the severity of 
the attack. Accordingly, a party of fifty, 
headed by the Captain, sallied out at midnight, 
towards the church compound, where they 
spiked two or three guns. Proceeding thence 
to the mess-house, they killed several of the 
native gunners asleep at their posts, blew up one 
of the twenty-four-pounders, and spiked another 
or two ; but although it was a most brilliant, 
daring, and successful exploit, it availed us 
little, as the next day they brought fresh guns 
into position, and this piece of service cost us 
one private killed, and four wounded. 

Day after day, throughout the whole period 
of our sufferings, while our numbers were 
more than decimated by the enemy’s fire, and 
our supply of food was known to be running 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


113 


short, we were buoyed up by expectations 
of relief. General Wheeler had telegraphed 
for reinforcements before communication with 
Calcutta was broken off, and it was reported 
that the ‘Governor-General had promised to 
send them up promptly, and we indulged the 
hope that they must have been expedited for 
our relief. We ministered all the comfort we 
could to the women, by the assurance that 
our desperate condition must be known at 
head-quarters; but so effectually had the sepoys 
closed the road all around us, that the tidings 
of our exact circumstances did not even reach 
Lucknow, only fifty miles distant, until the 
siege was nearly concluded. The southern 
road was entirely shut up, and not a native 
was allowed to travel in the direction of 
Allahabad. Pickets of sepoy infantry were 
posted fifteen paces apart, so as to form a 
complete cordon around the position, and 
these were supported by cavalry pickets, form- 
in 0, a second circle, and the whole were 
relieved every two hours. 

All the while that our numbers were 
rapidly diminishing, those of our antagonists 


114 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


were as constantly increasing. Revolters 
poured into the ranks from Delhi, Jhansi, 
Saugor, and Lucknow, and at last there were 
said to be not fewer than eight thousand of 
them in immediate proximity to us. 

Often we imagined that we heard the sounds 
of distant cannonading. At all hours of the day 
and night my men have asked me to listen. 
Their faces would gladden with the delusive 
hope of a relieving force close at hand, but 
only to sink back again presently into the old 
careworn aspect. Weariness and want had 
alike to be forgotten, and the energy of des¬ 
peration thrown into our unequal conflict. 
Occasionally moved by such rumours as these 
into a momentary gleaming of hope, the counte¬ 
nances of the women, for the most part, 
assumed a stolid apathy, and a deadly stillness 
that nothing could move. Much excitement 
was caused in our midst at the expiration of the 
first fortnight, by the arrival of a native spy, 
who came into the intrenchment. in the garb 
of a bheestie (a water-carrier). This man 
declared himself favourable to our cause, and 
said that he had brought good news, for there 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 115 

were two companies of European soldiers on 
the other side of the river, with a couple of 
guns from Lucknow; that they were making 
arrangements to cross the Ganges, and might 
be expected in our midst on the morrow. He 
came in again the next day, and told us that 
our countrymen were prevented crossing the 
stream by the rising of the waters, but that 
they were constructing rafts, and we might 
look for them in a day or two at the farthest. 
The tidings spread from man to man, and 
lighted some flickering rays of hope even in 
the bosoms of those who had abandoned them¬ 
selves to despair. But days rolled on, and 
more terrific nights; and the delusion was 
dispelled like the mirage. Our pretended 
friend was in fact one of the Nana’s spies, and 
the tidings which he conveyed back of our 
abject condition must have greatly gratified 
bis sanguinary employer. I have no doubt 
that the fiction about approaching help was 
the invention of the wily Azimoolali, and 
intended to throw us off our guard, and by 
the relaxation of our vigilance prepare the 
way for an assault. It had not that effect, 


116 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


though it was too successful in bolstering up 
our vain expectations. It will be remembered 
by my readers, that no relief reached Cawn- 
pore until three weeks after the capitulation, 
when the invincible Havelock wrested the 
cantonments from the treacherous Nana. 
Would that his unparalleled feats of valour 
had met with the reward which in his large 
heart he so much coveted!—the privilege of 
rescuing some of his countrywomen from the 
fangs of their brutal murderer. That was the 
guerdon for which he fought, and it was 
more cherished by him than all the honours 
of successful war; but an inscrutable Provi¬ 
dence had otherwise ordained it. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


117 


CHAPTER VII. 

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN ALEXANDER AND LIEUTENANT 
TOMKINSON AT OORAI—SUFFERINGS ENDURED BY ONE 
FAMILY—ARRIVAL OF LIEUTENANT BOLTON—THOUGHTS 
ON MILITARY AFFAIRS IN THE EAST—CENTENARY OF 
PLASSEY—CAPTAIN MOORE’S INGENUITY—NOVEL DEFENCES 
—CLEARING OUT THE BARRACKS—BLENMAN OUR SPY— 
MR. SHEPHERD’S ESCAPE—NATIVE SPIES. 


When tlie mutiny first broke out, two com¬ 
panies of the 53d Native Infantry were sta¬ 
tioned at Oorai, a detached command in the 
district situated across the Jumna, about 
eighty miles from Cawnpore. The officers 
at this station were Captain Alexander and 
Lieutenant Tomkinson. The sepoys under 
their command went about the business of 
revolt in a most thoroughly unsophisticated 
and unique manner. The native officers 
presented themselves before their lawful 


118 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


leaders, and informed them that they had 
assumed the command of the companies, but 
it was not their intention to injure their old 
friends. Accordingly they provided Captain 
Alexander and his lady with a camel, and 
recommended them to make the best of their 
way to Agra. After many perils these refugees 
reached that friendly fort in safety. A large 
amount of government treasure which was at 
Oorai, the Soubhadar, Seetul Singh placed 
under the charge of Lieutenant Tomkinson, 
who, accompanied by an escort of sepoys, con¬ 
veyed it safely to Gwalior, and made it over 
to the European officer at that station. On 
their return, his companions told Lieutenant 
Tomkinson to go about his business, as they 
could not be answerable for his safety if he 
determined to remain with them. Finding all 
expostulation useless, he left them, and putting 
spurs to his horse rode as far as Jaloum,* 
where he was kept in safety by a tackoor 

* Jaloum being in the neighbourhood of Calpee, it was 
no doubt Lieutenant Tomkinson’s residence there which 
gave rise to the rumours that a party of refugees from 
Cawnpore were being kept in safety by a zemindar at 
Calpee. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 119 

from June to November. In the latter month, 
the Gwalior contingent having mutinied, in 
their march upon Cawnpore they came upon 
Lieutenant Tomkinson, and put him to death. 
I gathered this statement from a Gwalior 
artilleryman who was taken prisoner. When 
the Nana heard that the native officers at 
Oorai had spared the lives of the Feringhees, 
and had given up the treasure, he cashiered 
them all. Men who retained any sentiments 
of humanity were not fit for the employment 
which he had in hand. 

Few" families have suffered more severely 
from the disastrous events of 1857 than that 
of Mrs. Alexander, the lady who was expelled 
from Oorai with her husband. 

Her mother, Mrs. Blair, was a resident at 
Cawnpore, with two of her daughters. This 
estimable lady was the daughter of General 
Kennedy, of Benares, a well-known Indian 
officer. Mrs. Blair had lost her husband, 
who was a cavalry officer, in Cabool, at the 
memorable Khyber Pass; but as no precise 
tidings of his death had ever been received, 
she cherished the forlorn hope that he was 


120 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

still living in captivity among the Affghans, 
and that some day it would be her happiness 
yet to be reunited with him, even on earth. 
It was a most bitter cup of sorrow that this 
unfortunate lady had to drink. Her sister, 
the wife of Dr. Newenliam, died in the 
trenches; her eldest daughter was cut off by 
fever, and she and her surviving daughter 
embarked in the same boat with myself. I 
believe that they survived the storms of shot, 
and were amongst those who endured the 
unspeakable atrocities of that second captivity 
and its bloody termination. There is one 
happy circumstance still attaching to the 
memory of these sufferers: they were sus¬ 
tained by the consolations of religion through¬ 
out all the heavy trials they had to endure. 

About the middle of the siege, much 
astonishment was caused by the arrival of an 
English officer, to whom even our desperate 
fortunes presented an asylum : this w T as Lieute¬ 
nant Bolton, of the 7th Cavalry, who reached 
our intrenchment in a most distressed and 
exhausted condition. This officer had been 
sent out from Lucknow, with a detachment of 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


121 


the 48th Native Infantry, and some of his 
own regiment, under the command of Captain 
Burmester, to keep open the road from 
Butteyghur to Cawnpore; and while they were 
employed upon this service, the men mutinied 
and fired upon their officers. Major Staples 
and Lieutenant Bolton effected their escape, 
but were closely pursued: the former was 
shot down from his horse and cut to pieces; 
the latter, though followed by two or three 
troopers, after a chase of sixteen miles eluded 
them, though carrying a bullet-hole in his 
cheek. Bolton contrived to pass through the 
Nana’s camp unobserved, and, being ignorant 
of our exact whereabouts, he slept out in the 
plain all night. At daybreak, spying our 
position, he rode for it, and cleared our wall 
at a leap, though, as he had been mistaken for 
a sowar, he was fired at by our men, and his 
horse was wounded. He joined the outpicket 
under Captain Jenkins, and although a great 
sufferer from the wound in his cheek, he 
proved a valuable addition to our strength. 
He lived throughout the siege, and was one of 
the multitude who perished in the boats. 


122 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


In contemplating the circumstances of this 
emeute in which Lieutenant Bolton was con¬ 
cerned, and which terminated in the death of 
several officers, I can but think it entirely 
attributable to a practice which I trust will 
from henceforth be for ever exploded from the 
Indian army, or at least from that portion of 
it which may consist of native troops; I refer 
to the detaching of officers from their own 
companies, and placing in their stead, for 
special service, those who have no knowledge 
of the men, and have never had the opportu¬ 
nity of gaining their confidence. The dis¬ 
cipline of the late sepoy regiments rested 
entirely on the attachment of the men to their 
own leaders. Their service to the Company 
was hireling in its character; their regard to 
their own officers, in most instances, very 
strong. Cases have been very rare in which 
the mutineers have molested commanders 
with whose persons they had become familiar. 
Among the undoubtedly great difficulties that 
have beset the maintenance of a native force 
in India, none have been more eminently 
fraught with peril than the utter ignorance of 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 123 

the language, and the more dangerous want 
of acquaintance with native habits and modes 
of thought which European officers have so 
frequently displayed. 

these causes of difficulty, which must more 
or less prevail in any country governed by a 
foreign power, are greatly aggravated in India 
by a thousand and one absurdities of caste 
and heathen customs, which require the greatest 
circumspection lest one should unwittingly 
tread on the toes of some giant prejudice 
which ages of habit have made as dear as 
life to these myriads around you. It is one 
thing to pay homage at their impure shrines, 
and quite another to display reckless disregard 
to all their conscientious scruples. The juste 
milieu is that which requires to be most 
thoroughly inculcated upon all aspirants after 
military employment in the East; and it 
might be as well that acquaintance with one 
or more of the most prevalent languages of 
India should be made a prerequisite for offi¬ 
cial life in that land. If nearly two hundred 
millions are to be held in subjection by a few 
thousand Englishmen, the day is past when 


124 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


it could be done by mere physical force. But 
I must not sacrifice my narrative for a homily, 
which possibly few will read and perhaps fewer 
respect. 

The 23d of June, 1857, the centenary of 
the battle of Plassy, was no doubt intended 
to have been the date of a simultaneous pre¬ 
concerted effort to break off the British yoke 
from the Himalayas to the Hoogly. Had 
not events at Meerut precipitated the out¬ 
burst, in its riper form it must have proved 
exceedingly more successful than it actually 
became. 

The Nana and his company evidently in¬ 
tended the celebration of this epoch after their 
own fashion. In the night of the 22d, we 
were threatened in our barrack No. 2 by a 
storming party from barrack No. 1. We saw 
the pandies gathering to this position from all 
parts, and fearing that my little band would 
be altogether overpowered by numbers, I sent 
to Captain Moore for more men. The answer 
was not altogether unexpected. “ Not one 
could be spared.” Shortly afterwards, how¬ 
ever, the gallant Captain came across to me in 

















■ 












The Charge of the Thirteen 










































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 125 

company with Lieutenant Delafosse, and he 
said to me :— 

“ Thomson, I think I shall try a new dodge ; 
we are going out into the open, and I shall 
give the word of command as though our 
party were about to commence an attack.” 

Forthwith they sallied out, Moore with a 
sword—Delafosse with an empty musket. 

The captain vociferated to the winds, 
“ Number one to the front.” And hundreds 
of ammunition pouches rattled on the bayonet- 
sheaths as our courageous foes vaulted out 
from the cover afforded by heaps of rubbish, 
and rushed into the safer quarters presented by 
the barrack walls. We followed them with a 
vigorous salute, and as they did not show 
fight just then, we had a hearty laugh at the 
ingenuity which had devised, and the courage 
which had executed, this successful feint. The 
whole of that night witnessed a series of 
surprises and false charges upon our barrack, 
and not a man of us left his post for an 
instant. Towards dawn, when they were a 
little more quiet, Mr. Mainwaring, a cavalry 
cadet, who was one of my picket, kindly 
I 


126 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


begged of me to lie down a little while, and 
he would keep a sharp look out. It was 
indeed a little while, for I had scarcely closed 
my eyes when Mainwaring shouted, “ Here 
they come.” They advanced close up to the 
doorway of our barrack, which in consequence 
of the floor not being down, presented brick¬ 
work breast high, but had no door. They had 
never before shown so much pluck. Main- 
waring’s revolver despatched two or three; 
Stirling, with an Enfield rifle, shot one and 
bayoneted another; both charges of my double- 
barrelled gun were emptied, and not in vain. 
We were seventeen of us inside that barrack, 
and they left eighteen corpses lying outside the 
doorway. An attack on the intrenchment was 
simultaneous with that on both of our barracks. 
They surrounded the wall on all sides, and in 
every style of uniform, regular, and irregular, 
both cavalry and infantry, together with horse 
and bullock batteries of field artillery, sent 
out as skirmishers. Their cavalry started 
upon the charge from the riding-school, and 
in their impetuosity, or through the ignorance 
of their leader, came all the way at a hand- 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 127 

gallop, so that when they neared the intrench- 
ment their horses were winded, and a round 
from our guns threw their ranks into hopeless 
confusion, and all who were not biting the 
dust wheeled round and retired. They had 
started with the intention of killing us all, or 
dying in the attempt, and oaths had been 
administered to the principal men among them 
to insure their fidelity to that purpose, as well 
as to stimulate their courage and determina¬ 
tion, but all the appliances employed were of 
none effect so soon as one of our batteries 
lodged a charge of grape in their midst. One 
very singular expedient that they adopted upon 
this occasion to cover their skirmishers from 
our fire was the following :—they rolled before 
them great bales of cotton, and under the 
effectual security which it seemed to present 
from being struck by our shots, they managed 
to approach ominously near to our walls. The 
well-directed fire from the batteries presently 
set light to some of these novel defences, and 
panic-struck the skirmishers retreated, before 
their main had shown signs of advance. 
During the following night we went out and 

i 2 


128 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

brought in some of the cotton that had 
escaped the flames, and it was useful for 
stopping gaps made in the walls, and similar 
purposes. During the course of these mani¬ 
festations I had a memento of the 23d of 
June in the shape of a wound in the left thigh 
from a grape-shot, which ploughed up the 
flesh, but happily, though narrowly, escaped 
the bone. On the evening of the 23d of 
June, a party of sepoys came out unarmed, 
and having salaamed to us, obtained leave to 
take away the dead they had left outside our 
walls. There can be no doubt that the failure 
of the attack on this occasion was a grievous 
disappointment to the Nana and his coadjutors. 

Seventeen days and nights our little party 
had resisted all the efforts made by the over¬ 
whelming numbers of the foe to storm the 
position. There remained nothing now for 
them to do but to starve us out; henceforth 
they abandoned all attempts to take us by 
assault. They resumed the old work of 
annoyance, by coming every day up the lines 
of the unfinished barracks, and threatening 
us. Accordingly we had to resume the daily 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 129 

employment of expelling them, lest their 
unchecked insolence should lead to acts more 
decisive. After having made one of these 
charges through the whole tier of buildings, 
Captain Jenkins and I were returning from 
barrack to barrack to our pickets, surveying 
the effects of the sortie we had just concluded. 
We had sent on our men before us to resume 
their posts ; and while we were leisurely 
walking and chatting together between the 
barracks numbered 4 and 5, a wounded sepoy, 
who had feigned death while our men passed 
him, suddenly raised his musket and shot 
Captain Jenkins through the jaw. I had the 
miserable satisfaction of first dismissing the 
assailant, and then conducted my suffering 
companion to his barrack. He lived two or 
three days in excruciating agony, and then 
died from exhaustion, as it was quite impos¬ 
sible, without the aid of instruments, to get 
even the wretched nutriment we possessed into 
his throat. 

In Captain Jenkins we lost one of the 
bravest and one of the best of our party. 
Captain Moore took the post vacated by 


130 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


this sad event for the remainder of the 
siege. 

On the 24th of June, a private named 
Blenman, an Eurasian by birth, but so dark 
in complexion as easily to have been taken 
for a native, and who had gone out once or 
twice before to the Nana’s camp to report the 
state of affairs in that direction, was once 
more sent out with instructions, if possible, 
to reach Allahabad, and make known our 
desperate condition. He passed through my 
outpost disguised as a cook, with only a pistol 
and fifteen rupees in his possession. He 
managed to elude the observation of seven 
troopers who were posted as cavalry pickets, 
but he was discovered by the eighth, and 
when he endeavoured to pass himself off as a 
chumar, or leather dresser, from the native city 
—whether they believed his story or not, they 
stripped him of rupees and pistol, and told him 
to return to the place he came from. Blenman 
was exceedingly courageous, and, when he 
chose, one of the best men we had, but he 
was always fitful in temper, and at times 
difficult to manage. Two or three attempts 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


131 


of the same kind were made to open com¬ 
munications with the down country people, 
but they all failed; and, with the exception 
of Blenman, we never saw any of our spies 
again after they had quitted our walls. One 
of them, Mr. Shepherd, of the commissariat 
department, survives, and has published the 
account of his adventures, from which it 
appears that he volunteered his services to 
General Wheeler, in the hope of being able 
to provide a retreat for his family in the native 
city. He says—“ With this view I applied to 
the General, on the 24th of June, for per¬ 
mission to go, at the same time offering to 
bring all the correct information that I might 
collect in the city, asking, as a condition, that 
on my return, if I should wish it, my family 
might be allowed to leave the intrenchment. 
This, my request, was granted, as the General 
wished very much to get such information, 
and for which purpose he had previously sent 
out two or three natives at different times, 
under promises of high reward, but who never 
returned. He at the same time instructed me 
to try and negotiate with certain influential 


132 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


parties in the city, so as to bring about a 
rupture among the rebels, and cause them to 
leave off annoying us, authorizing me to offer 
a lac of rupees as a reward, with handsome 
pensions for life, to any person who would 
bring about such a thing. This, I have every 
reason to believe, could have been carried out 
successfully, had it pleased God to take me 
out unmolested ; but it was not so ordained 
(it was merely a means, under God’s provi¬ 
dence, to save me from sharing the fate of the 
rest); for as I came out of the intrenchment, 
disguised as a native cook, and passing through 
the new unfinished barracks, had not gone 
very far when I was taken a prisoner, and 
under custody of four sepoys and a couple of 
sowars, all well armed, was escorted to the 
camp of the Nana, and was ordered to be 
placed under a guard. Here several questions 
were put to me concerning our intrenchment, 
not by the Nana himself, but by some of his 
people, to all of which I replied as I was 
previously instructed by our General; for I had 
taken the precaution of asking him what I 
should say in case I was taken. My answers 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


133 


were not considered satisfactory, and I was con¬ 
fronted with two women servants, who three 
days previously had been caught in making 
their escape from the intrenchment, and who 
gave a version of their own, making it appear 
that the English were starving, and not able 
to hold out much longer, as their number was 
greatly reduced. I, however, stood firm to 
what I had first mentioned, and they did not 
know which party to believe. I was kept 
under custody till the 12th of July, on which 
date my trial took place, and I was sentenced 
to three years’ imprisonment, with hard labour. 
They gave me only parched grain to eat daily, 
and that in small quantities.” 

The arrival of General Havelock was the 
means of Mr. Shepherd’s release after twenty- 
five days captivity. In this gentleman’s gene¬ 
rally truthful narrative of the siege there is 
one misstatement which requires correction, as 
it may have caused in some quarters the belief 
that we could have held out a fortnight longer 
than we did. Mr. Shepherd says that on the 
24th June, “There were provisions yet left to 
keep the people alive on half rations for the 


134 


THE STORY OF CaWNPORE. 


next fifteen or twenty days.” This is an 
error, as when the capitulation was projected, 
we had already been placed several days on half 
rations, and there were then in stock only 
supplies sufficient for four more days at the 
reduced rate. 

Many attempts were made to introduce 
themselves into our midst as spies by 
emissaries of the Nana, but with the excep¬ 
tion of the man who brought us the story 
of the approaching relief, they failed as con¬ 
spicuously as our own efforts in that direction. 
The natives are exceedingly adroit in this 
kind of occupation; they secrete their brief 
despatches in quills most mysteriously con¬ 
cealed about the person; they keep ambush 
with the most patient self-possession, and 
creep through the jungles as stealthily as the 
jackal. Often when our sentries v ere on 
the look-out over the wall, they have detected 
sepoys creeping on all-fours with their tul¬ 
wars between the teeth in the attempt to 
cut down a man without observation, but 
fortunately none of our force were caught 
napping in that way. There was one man 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


135 


named Gillis who was continually operating 
as a spy between Lucknow and General 
Havelock at the period of his memorable 
advance upon that city; and this man accu¬ 
mulated by his venturesome exploits what in 
native estimation has proved a brilliant fortune. 
After my return to Cawnpore several of our 
spies were sent back to us, with their hands 
cut off, or noses slit open; one poor fellow had 
lost hands, nose, and ears. The native mode 
of mutilation is horribly painful; the limb 
being chopped off with a tulwar, and the 
stump dipped in boiling oil to arrest the 
bleeding. 


136 


THE STORY OF CAWN PORE. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

ARTILLERY OPERATIONS—VALOROUS EXPLOIT OF DELAFOSSE 
—LIEUTENANT ASHE—SIR HUGH WHEELER—CAPT. MOORE 
—EFFORTS OF NANA TO STIMULATE NATIVES TO REBEL¬ 
LION—PROCLAMATIONS. 

During the first seven or eight days of the 
siege our guns were kept in constant operation, 
but we soon found that such light metal as we 
possessed was of little avail against their heavy 
24-pounders, and consequently our artillery ma¬ 
noeuvres were reserved for repelling attacks; 
and even then, during the latter part of the 
siege, the guns had to be served by volunteers, 
as our fifty-nine artillerymen had all been 
killed or wounded at their posts during the 
first week. With the exception of four of 
the number, these fine fellows all perished at 
the batteries—nor were the guns themselves 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


137 


in much better condition ; the howitzer was 
knocked completely off its carriage,—one or 
two of them had their sides driven in, and 
one was without a muzzle; at length there 
were only two of them that could by any 
ingenuity be made to carry grape, and these 
were loaded in a most eccentric manner. In 
consequence of the irregularity of the bore of 
the guns, through the damage inflicted on 
them by the enemy’s shot, the canister could 
not be driven home, consequently the women 
gave us their stockings; and having tapped 
the canisters, we charged these with the con¬ 
tents of the shot-cases—a species of cartridge 
probably never heard of before. It was a 
poor subterfuge, but by that time we were 
driven to every expedient that invention, 
sharpened by dire necessity, could bring into 
play. My friend Lieutenant Delafosse at Eck- 
ford’s battery was much annoyed by a small 
gun in barrack No. 1; and as he was com¬ 
pelled to load his 9-pounder with 6-pound 
shot, he could secure no regularity in his firing. 
Thoroughly dissatisfied with his artillery prac¬ 
tice, he at length resolved to stake his repu- 


138 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


tation as a bombardier on one desperate coup. 
He gave his worn-out gun a monster charge, 
consisting of three 6-pound shots and a stock¬ 
ing full of grape, all well rammed down. The 
result was satisfactory beyond expectation ; 
for the faithful old weapon did not burst, as 
might have been expected, and the sharp and 
troublesome little antagonist was never heard 
again. Another gallant exploit on the part 
of Lieutenant Delafosse occurred at the N. E. 
battery on the 21st of June. A shot had 
entered the tumbril of a gun, blew it up, 
and ignited the woodwork of the carriage, 
thus exposing the ammunition all around to 
destruction. The rebels having caught sight 
of the opportunity, directed their fire to this 
centre with redoubled fury ; and how to 
extinguish the flames was a problem requir¬ 
ing no common skill to solve, when my 
friend, with the coolest self-possession imagin¬ 
able, went to the burning gun, and lying 
down under the fiery mass, pulled away 
splinters of the wood, and scattered earth 
with both hands upon the flames. A couple 
of soldiers followed this courageous example, 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 139 

with a bucket of water each, and with a 
degree of energy and science worthy of a 
London fireman, my comrade applied these 
also, until the danger was extinct. The 
character of this exploit will be better appre¬ 
ciated when I add, that all the while, six 
guns were playing their 18 and 24-pounders 
around the spot. This performance was quite 
in keeping with all the valorous conduct of 
my esteemed companion in arms and adven¬ 
tures. To enumerate all such instances of 
individual exertion would require more than 
the memory of one man has been able to 
preserve. A carcase fell upon the top of a 
magazine, when Jacobi, a coach-maker by 
trade, instantly clambered up, and threw the 
missile over the wall of the intrenchment, 
an action more to be valued, as he thought 
the object of his attention was a live shell. 
Another time a tumbril full of treasure was 
broached by a round shot, and its contents, 
consisting of some thirty or forty thousand 
rupees, were sent flying amidst the surround¬ 
ing soldiers and their wives. Any circum¬ 
stances less distressing than ours would 


140 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

have made the scramble that ensued a most 
humorous picture. We had a lac and a half 
of rupees in the intrenchment, which had 
been brought from the treasury before the 
outbreak, ostensibly for the purpose of paying 
the troops. 

Lieutenant Ashe was a great scourge to 
our enemies, in consequence of the surprising 
celerity and accuracy of the firing from his 
battery. He never sacrificed a promising 
opportunity, and when he had fired, would 
jump up on to the heel of the gun, regard¬ 
less of the exposure, that he might see the 
extent of the damage he had inflicted. 

The whole of the activities connected with 
the command devolved upon Captain Moore 
very soon after the commencement of the 
attack. Sir Hugh Wheeler was invariably 
consulted, but the old General was quite 
incapacitated for the exposure and fatigue 
involved in the superintendence of all the 
posts of defence. Sir Hugh had served 
fifty years in India, and was therefore inti¬ 
mately acquainted with the vernacular, which 
he spoke like a native. In person he was 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 141 

short, of a spare habit, very grey, with a 
quick and intelligent eye; not imposing in 
appearance except by virtue of a thoroughly 
military gait. All the old General’s laurels 
had been won by sepoy troops, and if he 
had a fault as a soldier, it was that of too 
much reliance upon the Easterns. Although 
I should think seventy-four years of age, he 
was a first-rate equestrian. The first inter¬ 
view I had with him he was in company 
with his son and daughter on the parade- 
ground, surrounded by his Scotch deer¬ 
hounds, with which the three often went 
out jackal hunting. 

Captain Moore, who was the life and soul 
of our defence, was a tall, fair man, with 
light blue eyes, and, I believe, an Irishman 
by birth. He was in command of the 
invalid depot of the 32d Regiment when 
the mutiny broke out. Throughout all the 
harassing duties that devolved upon him, he 
never lost determination or energy. Though 
the little band of men at his direction were 
daily lessened by death, he was cheerful 
and animated to the last, and inspired all 

K 


142 THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 

around him with a share of his wonderful 
endurance and vivacity. He visited every 
one of the pickets daily, and sometimes two 
or three times a day, speaking words of 
encouragement to every one of us. His 
never-say-die disposition nerved many a sink¬ 
ing heart to the conflict, and his affable, 
tender sympathy imparted fresh patience to 
the suffering women. Mrs. Moore sometimes 
came across with him to our barrack, and we 
fitted up a little hut for her, made of bamboo, 
and covered over with canvas ; there she 
would sit for hours, bravely bearing the 
absence of her husband, while he was gone 
upon some perilous enterprise. She, poor 
creature, was amongst the unhappy number 
who outlived the siege, and were afterwards 
murdered in the house of horrors. 

While on our side every interest of humanity 
and patriotism, and every instinct of honour 
and existence, impelled us to perseverance in 
the defence, on the side of the enemy the 
most mendacious fabrications were put forth, 
to stir up the bigotry and hate of the natives. 
The worst passions of the Mahommedan and 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 143 

Hindoo were evoked by the terrors of forcible 
conversion, which it was openly alleged had 
been the intention of the British Government. 
Some specimens of the kind of influence em¬ 
ployed are indispensable to the history of the 
rebellion. The following proclamation made 
its way from Delhi to Cawnpore, in the month 
of June:— 

“To Q U Hindoos and Mussulmans ,, Citizens and Servants of 
Hmdostan, the Officers of the Army now at Delhi and 
Meerut send Greeting. 

It is well known that in these days all the English 
have entertained these evil designs-first to destroy the 
religion of the whole Hindostani army, and then to make 
the people Christians by compulsion. Therefore we, solely 
on account of our religion, have combined with the people 
and have not spared alive one infidel, and have re-estab¬ 
lished the Delhi dynasty on these terms, and thus act in 
obedience to orders and receive double pay. Hundreds of 
guns and a large amount of treasure have fallen into our 
hands ; therefore it is fitting that whoever of the soldiers 
and people dislike turning Christians should unite with 
one heart and act courageously, not leaving the seed of 
these infidels remaining. For any quantity of supplies 
delivered to the army the owners are to take the receipts 
of the officers; and they will receive double payment 
from the Imperial Government. Whoever shall in these 
times exhibit cowardice, or credulously believe the pro¬ 
mises of those impostors the English, shall very shortly 
be put to shame for such a deed ; and, rubbing the hands 
of sorrow, shall receive for their fidelity the reward the 
ruler of Lucknow got. It is further necessary that all 
K 2 


144 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


Hindoos and Mussulmans unite in this struggle, and, fol- 
lowing the instructions of some respectable people, keep 
themselves secure, so that good order may be maintained, 
the poorer classes kept contented, and they themselves be 
exalted to rank and dignity; also, that all, so far as it is 
possible, copy this proclamation, and dispatch it every¬ 
where, so that all true Hindoos and Mussulmans may be 
alive and watchful, and fix in some conspicuous place (but 
prudently to avoid detection), and strike a blow with a 
sword before giving circulation to it. The first pay of the 
soldiers of Delhi will be 30r. per month for a trooper, and 
lOr. for a foot-man. Nearly 100,000 men are ready, and 
there are 13 flags of the English regiments and about 14 
standards from different parts now raised aloft for our 
religion, for God, and the conqueror, and it is the intention 
of Cawnpore to root out the seed of the Devil. This is 
what we of the army here wish.” 

The Nana was not slow to imitate the example 
which had thus been set him by the Delhi 
people, although the specimen which he gives 
of the inventive faculty completely throws into 
the shade the tame original upon which he 
thus improved:— 

« jt has been ascertained from a traveller who has lately 
arrived at Cawnpore from Calcutta, that previously to the 
distribution of the cartridges for the purpose of taking away 
the religion and caste of the people of Hindostan, a council 
was held, at which it was resolved that, as this was a mat¬ 
ter of religion, it would be necessary to employ 7,000 or 
8,000 Europeans, and to kill 50,000 Hindostanees, and then 
all Hindostan would be converted to Christianity. 

“A petition to this effect was sent to Queen Victoria, 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


145 


and the opinion of the council was adopted. A second 
council was then held, to which the English merchants 
were admitted, and it was agreed that, to assist in carrying 
out the work, the same number of European soldiers 
should be allowed as there were Hindostanee Sepoys, lest, 
in the event of any great commotion arising, the former 
should be beaten. When this petition was perused in 
England, 35,000 European troops were embarked in ships 
with the utmost rapidity and despatched to India. Intel¬ 
ligence of their despatch was received in Calcutta, and the 
gentlemen of Calcutta issued orders for the distribution of 
cartridges. Their real object was to make Christians of 
the army under the idea that when this was done there 
would be no delay in Christianizing the people generally. 
In the cartridges the fat of swine and cows was used. 
This fact was ascertained from Bengalees who were em¬ 
ployed in making the cartridges ; one of these men was 
put to death and the rest were imprisoned. Here they 
were carrying out their plans. Then the Ambassador of 
the Sultan of Constantinople at the Court of London sent 
information to the Sultan that 35,000 English troops were 
to be despatched to India to make Christians of that 
country. The Sultan sent a firman to the Pasha of Egypt 
to the effect that he was colluding with Queen Victoria ; 
that this was not a time for compromise ; that from what 
his ambassador sent it appeared that 35,000 English 
soldiers had been despatched to India to make Christians 
of the people and soldiers of that country; that there was 
still time to put a stop to this ; that if he was guilty of 
any neglect in the matter, what kind of a face would he be 
able to show to God; that that day would one day be his, 
since, if the English succeeded in making Christians of the 
people of Hindostan, they would attempt the same in his 
country. On the receipt of this firman of the Sultan the 
Pasha, before the arrival of the English troops, made his 
arrangements and collected his troops at Alexandria—for 


146 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


that is the road to India—and on the arrival of the English 
army the troops of the Pasha of Egypt began firing on them 
with cannon from all sides, and destroyed and sank the ships 
so that not a single Englishman of them remained. The 
English at Calcutta, after issuing the order for biting the 
cartridges and the breaking-out of this now spreading mutiny 
and rebellion, were looking for assistance from the army 
coming from London; but God, by the exercise of His 
Almighty power, settled their business there. When the 
intelligence of the destruction of the army of London was 
received the Governor-General felt great grief and beat his 
head. At the beginning of the night murder and robbery 
were contemplated ; in the morning the body had no head, 
nor the head any covering! In one revolution the sky 
became of the same colour; neither Nadir nor Nadirs 
Government remained. This paper has been printed by 
order of Nana Sahib, 13th zeiroe, and add 1273. Higree, 8.” 

This valuable state paper from the archives 
of the Nana was followed by one or two brief 
attempts in the style-royal which indicated 
that the cares of Government were heightened 
by some solicitude about the rumoured advance 
of British troops upon Cawnpore. Though 
somewhat out of place here, in point of time, 
the reader may be glad to peruse, in connexion 
with the foregoing proclamations, all that 
remains of the orders in council of this auda¬ 
cious miscreant:— 

“ As, by the kindness of God and the ikbal of good for¬ 
tune of the Emperor, all the Christians who were at Delhi, 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


147 


Poonah, Satarah, and other places, and even those 5,000 
European soldiers who went in disguise into the former 
city and were discovered, are destroyed and sent to hell by 
the pious and sagacious troops, who are firm to their re¬ 
ligion ; and as they have all been conquered by the present 
Government, and as no trace of them is left in these places, 
it is the duty of all the subjects and servants of the Go¬ 
vernment to rejoice at the delightful intelligence, and to 
carry on their respective work with comfort and ease.” 

“As, by the bounty of the glorious Almighty God 
and the enemy-destroying fortune of the Emperor, the 
yellow-faced and narrow-minded people have been sent to 
hell, and Cawnpore has been conquered, it is necessary 
that all the subjects and landowners should be as obedient 
to the present Government as they had been to the former 
one ; that all the Government servants should promptly 
and cheerfully engage their whole mind in executing the 
orders of Government; that it is the incumbent duty of 
all the ryots and landed proprietors of every district to 
rejoice at the thought that the Christians have been sent 
to hell, and both the Hindoo and Mahommedan religions 
have been confirmed; and that they should as usual be 
obedient to the authorities of the Government, and never 
to suffer any complaint against themselves to reach the 
ears of the higher authority.” 

“ It has come to our notice that some of the city people 
having heard the rumours of the arrival of the European 
soldiers at Allahabad, are deserting their houses and going 
out into the districts ; you are, therefore, directed to pro¬ 
claim in each lane and street of the city that regiments of 
cavalry and infantry and batteries have been dispatched to 
check the Europeans either at Allahabad or Futtehpore, 
that the people should therefore remain in their houses 
without any apprehension, and engage their minds in 
carrying on their work.” 


148 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


CHAPTER IX. 


MRS. GREENWAY’S ARRIVAL—OFFERS OF CAPITULATION FROM 
THE NANA DELIBERATIONS ON PROPOSED CAPITULATION 
PROPOSALS DISCUSSED—TREATY SIGNED—A PEACEFUL 
NIGHT. 


On the twenty-first day of the siege, the 
firing of my picket having ceased for a short 
time, the look-out man up in the crow’s nest 
shouted, “ There’s a woman coming across.’-’ 
She was supposed to have been a spy, and 
one of the picket would have shot her, but that 
I knocked down his arm and saved her life. 
She had a child at her breast, but was so 
imperfectly clothed as to be without shoes and 
stockings. I lifted her over the barricade in 
a tainting condition, when I recognised her as 
Mrs. Greenway, a member of a wealthy family 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 149 

who had resided at Cawnpore, and carried on 
their operations as merchants in the canton¬ 
ments. Upon the appearance of the mutiny they 
fled to Nuzzuffghur, where they had a factory, 
in the belief that their own villagers would be 
quite able to protect them from any serious 
injury. These precautions were, however, 
utterly useless, as they fell into the Nana’s 
hands. 

One of the members of this family paid the 
Nana three lacs of rupees (30,000/.) to save the 
lives of the entire household. The unprincipled 
monster took the ransom, but numbered all 
the Greenways among the slain. As soon as she 
had recovered herself after entering the bar¬ 
rack, Mrs. Greenway handed me a letter with 
this superscription— 


“ To the Subjects of Her Most Gracious Ma¬ 
jesty Queen Victoria T 

I took this document to Captain Moore, and 
he, together with General Wheeler and Captain 
Whiting, deliberated over its contents—they 
were as follows :— 


150 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 


“ All those who are in no way connected 
with the acts of Lord Dalhousie, and are wil¬ 
ling to lay down their arms, shall receive a 
safe passage to Allahabad.” 

There was no signature to it, but the hand¬ 
writing was that of Azimoolah. Sir Hugh 
Wheeler, still hopeful of relief from Calcutta, 
and suspicious of treachery on the part of the 
Nana, for a long time most strenuously opposed 
the idea of making terms; but upon the re¬ 
presentation that there were only three days' 
rations in store, and after the often-reiterated 
claims of the women and children, and the 
most deplorable destitution in which we were 
placed, he at last succumbed to Captain 
Moore's expostulations, and consented to the 
preparation of a treaty of capitulation. All of 
us who were juniors adopted the views of the 
brave old general, but we well knew that it 
was only consideration for the weak and the 
wounded, that turned the vote against us. 
Had there been only men there, I am sure 
we should have made a dash for Allahabad 
rather than have thought of surrender; and 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


151 


Captain Moore would have been the first 
to lead the forlorn hope. A braver soul than 
he never breathed. 

It is easy enough, in the comfortable 
retirement of the club dining-room, for Colo¬ 
nel Pipeclay to call in question the propriety 
of the surrender; and his cousin, Mr. Scribe, 
in glowing trisyllabics, can fluently enough 
discourse of military honour and British 
heroism, of olden times. Only let these gen¬ 
tlemen take into consideration in their wine- 
and-walnut arguments, the famished sucklings, 
the woe-worn women, who awaited the issue 
of those deliberations, and perhaps even they 
will admit, as all true soldiers and sensible 
citizens have done, that there remained nothing 
better for our leaders to do than to hope the 
best from an honourable capitulation. 

The whole of that 23d of June the enemy 
ceased firing upon us. While the delibera¬ 
tions were going on, Mrs. Greenway stayed in 
my picket, though all the time eager to return 
to her little children, whom her brutal captor 
had retained as hostages. She was interro¬ 
gated particularly as to the treatment she 


152 the story of cawnpore. 

had received, and gave distressing details of 
their cruelty. They had fed her only on a most 
starving allowance of chupatties and water; 
stripped her of all her clothing but a gown, 
and had pulled her earrings out through the 
flesh. She cried most bitterly while enume¬ 
rating her wrongs, though she most explicitly 
affirmed that no indignities or abuse had jno- 
lested her honour. She returned at night to 
the Nana s camp, bearing the message, that 
the general, Sir Hugh Wheeler, was in deli¬ 
beration as to the answer that should be sent. 
Soon after Mrs. Greenway had left, Captain 
Moore reached my picket with the intelligence 
that we were about to treat with the enemy. 
I passed the word to the native officer, sta¬ 
tioned nearest to us, and presently Azimoolah 
made his appearance: he w T as accompanied by 
Juwallah Pershaud, the brigadier of the Nana’s 
cavalry. These two came to within about two 
hundred yards of my barrack, and Captains 
Moore and Whiting, and Mr. Roche, post¬ 
master of Cawnpore, went out to arrange the 
terms of the capitulation. The conditions for 
which our representatives stipulated, were 


THE STORY OF CAWNPOUE. 


153 


honourable surrender of our shattered barracks 
and free exit under arms, with sixty rounds of 
ammunition per man; carriages to be pro¬ 
vided for the conveyance of the wounded, the 
women and the children; boats furnished 
with flour to be ready at the ghaut. Some of 
the native party added to the remark about 
supplying us with flour, “ We will give you 
sheep and goats also.” 

Azimoolah engaged to take these written 
proposals to the Nana, and the same afternocn 
they were sent back by a sowar, with the 
verbal message that the Nana agreed to all 
the conditions, and that the cantonments were 
to be evacuated the same night. This was 
utterly impossible, and the treaty w^as imme¬ 
diately returned with an intimation that our 
departure must be delayed till the morrow. 
The sowar came back to us once more, and 
Captain Whiting and I went out to meet him, 
when he informed us that the Nana was in¬ 
flexible in his determination that we should 
instantly evacuate, and that if we hesitated 
his guns would open upon us again; and 
moreover he bade us remember that he was 


154 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


thoroughly acquainted with our impoverished 
condition; he knew that our guns were shat¬ 
tered, and if he did renew the bombardment, 
we must all certainly be killed. To all this 
Whiting replied we should never be afraid of 
their entering the intrenchment, as we had 
repelled their repeated attempts to do this, 
and even if they should succeed in overpower¬ 
ing us, we had men always ready at the 
magazines to blow us all up together. The 
sowar returned to the Nana, and by and by 
he came out to us again, with the verbal con¬ 
sent that we should delay the embarkation 
until the morning. Mr. Todd now volunteered 
to take the document across to the Sevadah 
Kothi, the Nana’s residence, and after about 
an absence of half an hour, he returned with 
the treaty of capitulation signed by the Nana. 
Mr. Todd said that he was courteously re¬ 
ceived, and that no hesitation was made in 
giving the signature, which, in point of fact, 
left the covenant as worthless as it possibly 
could be. I narrate all these details, to ex¬ 
onerate General Wheeler and Captain Moore 
from any suspicion of having overlooked pre- 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


155 


cautions that might be supposed to give secu¬ 
rity to their proceedings. Three men were 
sent from the hostile camp into our intrench- 
ment to remain there the whole night as 
hostages for the Nana’s good faith. One of 
them was the before-named Juwallah Per- 
shaud; there is little doubt that this rogue 
was in possession of a perfect programme of 
the projected plans for the morrow. He was one 
of the Bithoor retainers, and had now become 
a very considerable personage, having floated on 
the tide of mutiny to high military command in 
the ranks of the rebel army. Juwallah con¬ 
doled in most eloquent language with Sir 
Hugh Wheeler upon the privations he had 
undergone, and said that it was a sad affair 
at his time of life for the general to suffer so 
much; and that after he had commanded 
sepoy regiments for so many years, it was a 
shocking thing they should turn their arms 
against him. He, Juwallah, would take care 
that no harm should come to any of us on the 
morrow; and his companions used language 
of the same kind both for its obsequiousness 
and falsity. Before sunset our shattered guns 


156 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


were formally made over to the Nana, and a 
company of his artillery stood at them the 
whole night: some of them, men who had 
been drilled at the same guns in the service of 
the Honourable East India Company. A 
committee was next appointed, consisting of 
Captain Athill Turner and Lieutenants Dela- 
fosse and Goad, to go down to the river and 
see if the boats were in readiness for our 
reception. An escort of native cavalry was 
sent to conduct them to the ghaut. They 
found about forty boats moored and apparently 
ready for departure, some of them roofed, and 
others undergoing that process. These were 
the large up-country boats, so well known to 
all Indians. The committee saw also the ap¬ 
parent victualling of some of the boats, as in 
their presence a show of furnishing them with 
supplies was made, though before the morning 
there was not left in any of them a sufficient 
meal for a rat. Our delegates returned to us 
without the slightest molestation, though I 
afterwards gathered that Captain Turner was 
made very uneasy by the repetition of the word 
buttle (massacre), which he overheard passing 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


157 


from man to man by some of the 56th Native 
Infantry, who were present on the river’s 
bank. 

During the night some sleepy sentry of 
theirs, in barrack No. 1, dropped his musket, 
and so caused its discharge. I suppose that 
at their head-quarters this was taken to be 
firing on our part, for they instantly opened 
with musketry and artillery all round us, as 
rapidly as they could load repeating the volley. 
We did not answer them with a single car- 
tridge, but stood at our posts prepared for an 
attack. Juwallah sent for one of the sepoys 
in barrack No. 1, and upon discovering the 
cause of the commotion, despatched a quieting 
communication to his uneasy principals. Not¬ 
withstanding this interruption, that night was 
by far the best we had had for a month. With 
a pillow of brickbats, made comfortable by 
extreme fatigue and prolonged suspense, and 
with a comfortable sense of having done all 
that he could, or that his country could require, 
many a poor fellow slept that night, only less 
soundly than he did on the following one. 
The well had been besieged on the cessation 

L 


158 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

of the enemy’s fire, and draught after draught 
was swallowed; and though the debris of 
mortar and bricks had made the water cloudy, 
it was more delicious than nectar. It was not 
given out by thimblefuls that night. Double 
rations of chupatties and dhal were served 
round, though the degree of confidence that 
was put in each other by the contracting 
parties will be tolerably evident from the fact 
that no decent food was begged or bought on 
our side, nor was it offered or given on the 
other. There was a slightly visible change for 
the better in the countenances of the women, 
though some of them gave expression to their 
suspicions with such inquiries as these, “ Do 
you think it will be all right to-morrow ? ” 
“ Will they really let us go down to Allahabad 
in safety ? ” The majority assumed a tone of 
cheerfulness, and comforted one another with 
the prospects of rescue. Such, however, was 
the extreme depression of both mind and 
body, that any alternative seemed preferable 
to the prolonged murder of the siege. The 
children, at least, were cheerful, they had had 
the wants of the moment more liberally sup- 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 159 

plied than for a long time past, and at mid- 
night all was silent; men, women, and chil¬ 
dren, all slept. After such an acclimation of 
the brain to incessant bombardment, the still¬ 
ness was actually painful. In that silence the 
angel of death brooded over many a sleeper 
there. The jackal took the opportunity of¬ 
fered to him to prowl amongst the animal 
remains around the intrenchment, without 
alarm from the guns; and day-break disclosed 
to view hosts of adjutant birds and vultures 
gloating over their carnivorous breakfast. 
These are the only parties who have to thank 
the sepoys for the rebellion of 1857. 


160 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


CHAPTER X. 

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE—FAREWELL TO THE IN- 
TRENCHMENT — THE EMBARKATION — TREACHERY AND 
MURDER—ESCAPE OF MAJOR VIBARl’S BOAT—PURSUIT 
BY SEPOYS. 

It was a truly strange spectacle which the 
opening morning of the 27 th of June brought 
within the intrenchment. All the activities of 
departure were manifest on every side. Men 
and women were loading themselves with 
what each thought most precious. Hurried 
words of sympathy were uttered to the 
wounded, and many a hearty declaration given 
that, at all hazards, they should not be left 
behind. Some had much that they wished to 
carry away, some had nothing. The time for 
deliberation was short, and the power to carry 
limited indeed. Little relics of jewellery were 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


161 


secreted by some, in the tattered fragments of 
their dress. A few were busily occupied in 
digging up boxes from the ruins of the 
building, the said boxes containing plate and 
other valuables. Some cherished a Bible or a 
Prayer-book; others bestowed all their care upon 
the heirlooms which the dead had entrusted 
to their keeping, to be transferred to survivors 
at home. The able-bodied men packed them¬ 
selves with all the ammunition which they could 
carry, till they were walking magazines. 

Not a few looked down that well, and 
thought of the treasures consigned to its 
keeping. Some would have fain been amongst 
them even there. Here a party paced the 
outside of the barrack-wall, and gazed at the 
brickwork, all honeycombed with shot. There 
a little group lent kindly aid to bind up and 
secure the clothing that could scarcely be made 
to hold together. Never, surely, was there 
such an emaciated, ghostly party of human 
beings as we. There were women who had 
been beautiful, now stripped of every personal 
charm, some with, some without gowns; frag¬ 
ments of finery were made available no longer 


162 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


for decoration, but decorum; officers in tar¬ 
nished uniforms, rent and wretched, and with 
nondescript mixtures of apparel, more or less 
insufficient in all. There were few shoes, 
fewer stockings, and scarcely any shirts; these 
had all gone for bandages to the wounded. 
After an hour or two of this busy traffic the 
elephants and palanquins made their appear¬ 
ance at Ashe’s battery. Water was the only 
cordial we could give to the wounded, but 
this they eagerly and copiously drank. No 
rations were served out before starting, 
nor was any ceremony, or religious service 
of any kind observed. Sixteen elephants 
and between seventy and eighty palanquins 
composed the van of the mournful pro¬ 
cession, and more than two hundred suf¬ 
ferers had thus to be conveyed down to the 
river. The advance-guard, consisting of some 
men of the 32d Regiment, led by Captain 
Moore, had to return for a second instalment 
of those who were unable to walk the single 
mile to the ghaut. Not a sepoy accompanied 
us, we loaded and unloaded the burdens our¬ 
selves ; and the most cautious handling caused 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


163 


much agony to our disabled ones. They would 
have been objects for intense pity, and sub¬ 
jects of great pain, with all the relief that 
hospital science could have devised for their 
attention, but our rude and unaided efforts 
must have caused them greatly aggravated 
torture. 

The women and children were put on the 
elephants, and into bullock carts; the able- 
bodied walked down indiscriminately, after 
the advance had gone. Immediately after the 
exit of the first detachment, the place was 
thronged with sepoys. One of them said to 
one of our men, “ Give me that musket/’ 
placing his hand upon the weapon, as if about 
to take it. “ You shall have its contents, if 
you please, but not the gun,” was the reply; 
the proposal not having been accepted, the 
insulted Briton walked off: it was the only 
semblance of an interruption to our departure. 

The sepoys were loud in their expression of 
astonishment that we had withstood them so 
long, and said that it was utterly unaccountable 
to them. We told them that had it not been for 
the failure of our food, we should have held 


164 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


the place to the last man. I asked one of 
them, whom I recognised as having belonged 
to my own regiment, how many they had lost; 
and he told me, from eight hundred to a thou¬ 
sand. I believe this estimate to have been 
under, rather than over the mark. Inquiries 
were made by men after their old officers 
whom they had missed, and they appeared 
much distressed at hearing of their death. 
Such discrepancies of character will possibly 
mystify the northern mind, but they are indi¬ 
genous to the East. I inquired of another 
sepoy of the 53d, “ Are we to go to Allahabad 
without molestation ? ” He affirmed that such 
was his firm belief; and I do not suppose that 
the contemplated massacre had been divulged 
beyond the councils of its brutal projectors. 
Poor old Sir Hugh Wheeler, his lady and 
daughter, walked down to the boats. The 
rear was brought up by Major Vibart, who 
was the last officer in the intrenchment. Some 
of the rebels who had served in this officer’s 
regiment insisted on carrying out the property 
which belonged to him. They loaded a bub 
iock cart with boxes, and escorted the Major’s 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 165 

wife and family down to the boats, with the 
most profuse demonstrations of respect. When 
we reached the place of embarkation, all of us, 
men and women, as well as the bearers of the 
wounded and children, had to wade knee- 
deep through the water, to get into the boats, 
as not a single plank was provided to serve for 
a gangway. It was 9 o’clock a.m. when the 
last boat received her complement. And now 
I have to attempt to portray one of the most 
brutal massacres that the history of the 
human race has recorded, aggravated as it was 
by the most reckless cruelty and monstrous 
cowardice. 

The boats were about thirty feet long and 
twelve feet across the thwarts, and over-crow¬ 
ded with their freight. They were flat down 
on the sandbanks, with about two feet of 
water rippling around them. We might and 
ought to have demanded an embarkation in 
deeper water, but in the hurry of our depar¬ 
ture, this had been overlooked. If the rainy 
season had come on while we were intrenched, 
our mud-w r alls would have been entirely 
washed away, and grievous epidemic sickness 


166 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


must have been added to the long catalogue 
of our calamities. While the siege lasted, we 
were daily dreading the approach of the rains, 
—now, alas! we mourned their absence, for 
the Ganges was at its lowest. Captain Moore 
had told us that no attempt at anything like 
order of progress would be made in the depar¬ 
ture ; but when all were aboard, we were to 
push off as quickly as possible, and make for 
the other side of the river, where orders would 
be given for our further direction. As soon as 
Major Yibart had stepped into his boat, “ Off” 
was the word; but at a signal from the shore, 
the native boatmen, who numbered eight and 
a coxswain to each boat, all jumped over and 
waded to the shore. We fired into them imme¬ 
diately, but the majority of them escaped, and 
are now plying their old trade in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Cawnpore. Before they quitted 
us, these men had contrived to secrete burning 
charcoal in the thatch of most of the boats. 
Simultaneously with the departure of the boat¬ 
men, the identical troopers who had escorted 
Major Yibart to the ghaut opened upon us with 
their carbines. As well as the confusion, caused 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


167 


by the burning of the boats, would allow, we 
returned the fire of these horsemen, who were 
about fifteen or sixteen in number, but they 
retired immediately after the volley they had 
given us. 

Those of us who were not disabled by 
wounds, now jumped out of the boats, and 
endeavoured to push them afloat, but, alas! 
most of them were utterly immoveable. Now, 
from ambush, in which they were concealed 
all along the banks, it seemed that thousands 
of men fired upon us ; besides four nine-poun¬ 
ders, carefully masked and pointed to the 
boats, every bush was filled with sepoys. 

There are two or three houses close down 
by the river in this place, one of them formerly 
known as the Fusilier mess-house, a second the 
residence of Captain Jenkins, and a third now 
in the occupancy of the station-chaplain. These 
were filled with our murderers, and the last of 
them held two of the guns. The scene which 
followed this manifestation of the infernal 
treachery of our assassins is one that beggars 
all description. Some of the boats presented 
a broadside to the guns, others were raked 


168 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


from stem to stern by the shot. Volumes of 
smoke from the thatch somewhat veiled the 
full extent of the horrors of that morning. All 
who could move were speedily expelled from 
the boats by the heat of the flames. Alas! 
the wounded were burnt to death; one 
mitigation only there was to their horrible 
fate—the flames were terrifically fierce, and 
their intense sufferings were not protracted. 
Wretched multitudes of women and children 
crouched behind the boats, or waded out into 
deeper water and stood up to their chins in 
the river to lessen the probability of being 
shot. Meanwhile Major Vibart’s boat, being 
of lighter draft than some, had got off and was 
drifting down the stream, her thatched roof 
unburnt. I threw into the Ganges my father’s 
Ghuznee medal, and my mother’s portrait, all 
the property I had left, determined that they 
should only have my life for a prey: and with 
one final shudder at the devilry enacting upon 
that bank, and which it was impossible to 
mitigate by remaining any longer in its reach, 

I struck out, swimming for the retreating boat. 
There were a dozen of us beating the water for 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


169 


life; close by my side there were two brothers, 
Ensign Henderson (56th Native Infantry) 
and his brother, who had but recently come 
out to India. They both swam well for some 
distance, when the younger became weak, and 
although we encouraged him to the utmost, 
he went down in our sight, though not within 
our reach; presently his survivor, J. W. Hen¬ 
derson, was struck on the hand by a grape- 
shot. He put the disabled arm over my 
shoulder, and with one arm each, we swam to 
the boat, which by this time had stranded on 
a bank close to the Oude side of the river. 
We were terribly exhausted when Captain 
Whiting pulled us in; and had it not been 
for the sand-bank, we must have perished. 
All of the other swimmers sank through 
exhaustion, or were shot in the water, except 
Lieutenant Harrison, of the 2d Light Cavalry, 
and Private Murphy, 84th regiment. Harrison 
had left one of the boats in company with a 
number of passengers, and by wading they 
reached a small island, about two hundred 
yards from the shore. While I was swimming 
past this islet, I saw three sowars of cavalry 


170 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


who had also waded from the Cawnpore- 
bank:—One of them cut down one of our 
women with his tulwar, and then made off 
for Harrison, who received him with a charge 
from his revolver, and waited for the second 
man, whom he despatched in like manner, 
whereupon the third took to the water on the 
shore-side of the ait, and Harrison, plunging 
in on the river-side, swam to Vibart’s boat. 
While I was swimming, a second boat got 
away from the ghaut, and while drifting, was 
struck by a round shot below the water-mark, 
and was rapidly filling, when she came along¬ 
side, and we took off the survivors of her 
party. Now the crowded state of our poor 
ark left little room for working her. Her 
rudder was shot away; we had no oars, for 
these had all been thrown overboard by the 
traitorous boatmen, and the only implements 
that could be brought into use, were a spar or 
two, and such pieces of wood as we could in 
safety tear away from the sides. Grape and 
round shot flew about us from either bank of 
the river, and shells burst constantly on the 
sand-banks in our neighbourhood. Alternately 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


171 


stranding and drifting, we were often within 
a hundred yards of the guns on the Oude side 
of the river, and saw them load, prime, and 
fire into our midst. Shortly after mid-day 
we got out of range of their great guns; the 
sandy bed on the river-bank had disabled their 
artillery-bullocks, but they chased us the whole 
day, firing in volleys of musketry incessantly. 

On that 27th of June we lost, after the escape 
of the boat. Captain Moore, Lieutenants x\she, 
Bolton, Burney, and Glanville, besides many 
others, whose names I did not know. Captain 
Moore was killed while attempting to push off 
the boat,—a ball pierced him in the region of 
the heart; Ashe and Bolton died in the same 
manner. Burney and Glanville were carried 
off by one round-shot, which also shattered 
Lieutenant Fagan’s leg to such an extent, that 
from the knee downwards it was only held 
together by sinews. His sufferings were 
frightful, but he behaved with wonderful 
patience. I had a great regard for him, as he 
and I were griffs together at Benares. Just 
after I had been pulled into the boat, Mrs. 
Swinton, who was a relative of Lieutenant 


172 


THE STORY OF C AWN PORE. 


Jervis of the Engineers, was standing up in 
the stern, and, having been struck by a round- 
shot, fell overboard and sank immediately. 
Her poor little boy, six years old, came up to 
me and said, “ Mamma has fallen overboard.” 
I endeavoured to comfort him, and told him 
mamma would not suffer any more pain. The 
little babe cried out, “ Oh, why are they firing 
upon us? did not they promise to leave 
off?” I never saw the child after that, and 
suspect that he soon shared his mother’s 
death. 

The horrors of the lingering hours of that day 
seemed as if they would never cease; we had 
no food in the boat, and had taken nothing 
before starting. The water of the Ganges 
was all that passed our lips, save prayers, and 
shrieks, and groans. 

The wounded and the dead were often 
entangled together in the bottom of the boat: 
to extricate the corpses was a work of extreme 
difficulty, though imperatively necessary from 
the dreaded consequences of the intense heat, 
and the importance of lightening the boat as 
much as possible. 


THE STORY OF CAWNl’ORE. 


173 


In the afternoon of that day, I saw a sepoy 
from behind a tree deliberately taking aim at 
me : the bullet struck the side of my head, and 
I fell into the boat stunned by the wound. 
“ We were just going to throw you overboard,” 
was the greeting I had from some of the men 
when 1 revived. Six miles was the entire dis¬ 
tance that we accomplished in the whole day ; 
at 5 i\m. we stranded, and as all our efforts to 
move the keel an inch were in vain, we resolved 
to stay there at all hazards till night-fall, in the 
hope that when darkness sheltered us we 
might be able to get out the women and 
lighten the craft sufficiently to push her off. 
They now sent a burning boat down the 
stream, in the hope that she would fall foul of 
us—providentially the thing glided past us, 
though within a yard or two. 

At night they let fly arrows with lighted 
charcoal fastened to them, to ignite, if possible, 
the thatched roof, and this protection we were, 
in consequence, obliged to dislodge and throw 
overboard. When we did succeed in getting 
adrift, the work of pushing away from the 

M 


174 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


sand-banks was incessant; and we spent as 
much of the night out, as we did in the boat. 
There was no moon, however, and although 
they did not cease firing at us until after 
midnight, they did us little damage. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


175 


CHAPTER XI. 


DRIFTING AND GROUNDING—DETACHMENT SENT FROM BOAT 
TO ATTACK SEPOYS—BOAT TAKEN BACK TO CAWNPORE— 
ESCAPE TO A TEMPLE—SIX MILES SWIMMING—ARRIVAL 
AT MOORAR MHOW. 

When the morning broke upon us, we saw 
none of our pursuers, and began to indulge 
the hope that they had given up the chase. 
We had, however, only made four miles in the 
entire night, and our prospects of escape can 
scarcely be said to have improved. About 8 
a.m. we saw some natives bathing, and per¬ 
suaded a native drummer who was with us to 
go and talk with them, and try to induce them 
to get us some food. The drummer took with 
him five rupees, and procured from one of the 
bathers a promise to obtain food, and also, if 
possible, the assistance of some native boatmen. 

m 2 


176 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


This man left his lotah (a cooking-pot, which 
the natives carry everywhere with them) as a 
guarantee for his fidelity; but we saw no more 
of him, and he informed our messenger that 
orders had been sent down to Nuzzuffghur, 
two miles further, to seize us, and that Ba¬ 
boo Bam Buksh of Dhownriakera, a powerful 
zemindar on the Oude side, had engaged that 
he would not suffer one of us to escape 
his territory. Captain Whiting now wrote 
with his pencil a brief statement of our utter 
abandonment of all hope, put the scrap of paper 
into a bottle, and cast it into the river. At 
2 p.m. we stranded off Nuzzuffghur, and they 
opened on us with musketry. Major Vibart 
had been shot through one arm on the pre¬ 
vious day; nevertheless he got out, and while 
helping to push off the boat was shot through 
the other arm. Captain Athill Turner had 
both his legs smashed. Captain Whiting was 
killed. Lieutenant Quin was shot through 
the arm; Captain Seppings through the arm ; 
and Mrs. Seppings through the thigh. Lieu¬ 
tenant Harrison was shot dead. I took off his 
rings and gave them to Mrs. Seppings, as I 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


177 


thought the women might perhaps excite some 
commiseration, and that if any of our party 
escaped, it would be some of them. Blenman, 
our bold spy, was shot here in the groin, and 
implored some of us to terminate his sufferings 
with a bullet, but it might not be done. At 
this place they brought out a gun; but while 
they were pointing it at us the rain came down 
in such torrents that they were not able to 
discharge it more than once. At sunset fifty 
or sixty natives came down the stream in a 
boat from Cawnpore, thoroughly armed, and 
deputed to board and destroy us. But they 
also grounded on a sandbank; and instead of 
waiting for them to attack us, eighteen or 
twenty of us charged them, and few of their 
number escaped to tell the story. Their boat 
was well supplied with ammunition, and we 
appropriated it to our own use; but there was 
no food, and death was now staring us in the 
face from that direction. That night we fell 
asleep faint and weary, and expecting never to 
see the morrow; but a hurricane came on in 
the night, and set us free again. Some of us 
woke in the mid-darkness, and found the boat 


178 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


floating; some fresh hopes buoyed us up 
again; but daylight returned to reveal the 
painful fact that we had drifted out of the 
navigable channel into a siding of the river 
opposite Soorajpore. Our pursuers speedily 
discovered us, and again opened with musketry 
on the boat, which was once more settled down 
deep in a sandbank. At 9 a.m. Major Yibart 
directed me, with Lieutenant Delafosse, Ser¬ 
geant Grady, and eleven privates of the 84th 
and 32d Regiments, to wade to the shore and 
drive off the sepoys, while they attempted to 
ease off the boat again. It was a forlorn enter¬ 
prise—that consigned to us—but it myste¬ 
riously contributed, by God’s goodness, to the 
escape of four of our number. Maddened by 
desperation, we charged the crowd of sepoys 
and drove them back some distance, until we 
were thoroughly surrounded by a mingled 
party of natives, armed and unarmed. We 
cut our way through these, bearing more 
wounds, but without the loss of a man; and 
reached the spot at which we had landed, but 
the boat was gone. Our first thought was 
that they had got loose again, and were 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


179 


farther down the stream; and we followed in 
that direction, but never saw either the boat 
or our doomed companions any more. Our 
only hope of safety now was in flight; and, 
with a burning sun overhead, a rugged raviny 
ground, and no covering for the feet, it was no 
easy task for our half-famished party to make 
head ; but a rabble of ryots and sepoys at our 
heels soon put all deliberation upon the course 
to be pursued, as it did ourselves, to flight. 
For about three miles .we retreated, when I 
saw a temple in the distance, and gave orders 
to make for that. To render us less conspi¬ 
cuous as marks for the guns, we had separated 
to the distance of about twenty paces apart; 
from time to time loading and firing as we 
best could upon the multitude in our rear. As 
he was entering the temple, Sergeant Grady 
was shot through the head. I instantly set 
four of the men crouching down in the doorway 
with bayonets fixed, and their muskets so placed 
as to form a cheval-de-frise in the narrow en¬ 
trance. The mob came on helter-skelter in 
such maddening haste that some of them fell 
or were pushed on to the bayonets, and their 


180 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


transfixed bodies made the barrier impassable 
to the rest, upon whom we, from behind our 
novel defence, poured shot upon shot into the 
crowd. The situation was the more favourable 
to us, in consequence of the temple having 
been built upon a base of brickwork three feet 
from the ground, and approached by steps on 
one side. The brother of Baboo Ram Buksh, 
who was leading the mob, was slain here; and 
his bereaved relation was pleased to send word 
to the Nana that the English were thoroughly 
invincible. Foiled in their attempts to enter 
our asylum, they next began to dig at its 
foundation; but the walls had been well laid, 
and were not so easily to be moved as they 
expected. They now fetched faggots, and 
from the circular construction of the building 
they were able to place them right in front of 
the doorway with impunity, there being no win¬ 
dow or loop-hole in the place through which we 
could attack them, nor any means of so doing, 
without exposing ourselves to the whole mob at 
the entrance. In the centre of the temple there 
was an altar for the presentation of gifts to the 
presiding deity; his shrine, however, had not 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


181 


lately been enriched, or it had more recently 
been visited by his ministering priests, for there 
were no gifts upon it. There was, however, in a 
deep hole in the centre of the stone which con¬ 
stituted the altar, a hollow with a pint or two of 
water in it, which, although long since putrid, 
we bailed out with our hands, and sucked 
down with great avidity. When the pile of 
faggots had reached the top of the doorway, or 
nearly so, they set them on fire, expecting to 
suffocate us; but a strong breeze kindly sent 
the great body of the smoke away from the 
interior of the temple. Fearing that the suffo¬ 
cating sultry atmosphere would be soon insup¬ 
portable, I proposed to the men to sell their 
lives as dearly as possible; but we stood until 
the wood had sunk down into a pile of embers, 
and we began to hope that we might brave 
out their torture till night (apparently the only 
friend left us) would let us get out for food 
and attempted escape. But their next expe¬ 
dient compelled an evacuation; for they brought 
bags of gunpowder, and threw them upon the 
red-hot ashes. Delay would have been certain 
suffocation—so out we rushed. The burning 


182 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


wood terribly marred our bare feet, but it was 
no time to think of trifles. Jumping the pa¬ 
rapet, we were in the thick of the rabble in an 
instant; we fired a volley, and ran a-muck 
with the bayonet. Seven of our number suc¬ 
ceeded in reaching the bank of the river, and 
we first threw in our guns and then ourselves. 
The weight of ammunition we had in the 
pouches carried us under the water; while we 
were thus submerged, we escaped the first 
volley that they fired. We slipped off the 
belts, rose again, and swam; and by the time 
they had loaded a second time, there were 
only heads for them to aim at. I turned 
round, and saw the banks of the river thronged 
with the black multitude, yelling, howling, and 
firing at us; while others of their party rifled 
the bodies of the six poor fellows we had left 
behind. Presently two more were shot in the 
head; and one private, Ryan, almost sinking 
from exhaustion, swam into a sandbank and 
was knocked on the head by two or three 
ruffians waiting to receive him. These villains 
had first promised Lieutenant Delafosse and 
private Murphy that if they would come to the 



Swimming for Life. 













































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































. 



THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


183 


shore they should be protected, and have food 
given to them. They were so much inclined 
to yield that they made towards the bank, but 
suddenly and wisely altered their determi¬ 
nation. Infuriated with disappointment, one 
of them threw his club at Delafosse; but in 
the height of his energy lost his balance and 
fell into deep water; the other aimed at 
Murphy, and struck him on the heel. For 
two or three hours, we continued swimming; 
often changing our position, and the current 
helping our progress. At length our pursuers 
gave up the chase; a sowar on horseback was 
the last we saw of them. 

It turned out that we had reached the terri¬ 
tory of a rajah who was faithful to Govern¬ 
ment, Dirigbijah Singh, of Moorar Mhow, in 
Oude. When no longer pursued, we turned 
into the shore to get rest, and saw two or 
three long-nosed alligators basking on a sand¬ 
bank. The natives afterwards said that it was 
a miracle we had escaped their bottle-nosed 
brethren who feed on men. 

We were sitting down by the shore with the 
water up to our necks, still doubtful of our 


184 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


safety, when we heard voices and approaching 
footsteps, and again plunged into the stream 
like terrified beasts of the waters. Our visi¬ 
tors proved to be retainers of the rajah Dirig- 
bijah Singh, though their armed aspect, with 
swords, shields, and matchlocks, and our igno¬ 
rance of the loyal sanctions under which they 
lived, made them anything but comforting in 
appearance to us. “ Sahib ! Sahib ! why swim 
away P—we are friends 1 ” they shouted. I 
replied to them, “We have been deceived so 
often, that we are not inclined to trust any¬ 
body.” They said, if we wished it they would 
throw their arms into the river to convince us 
of their sincerity. Partly from the exhaustion 
which was now beginning to be utterly insup¬ 
portable, and partly from the hope that they 
were faithful, we swam to the shore, and when 
we reached the shallow water, such was our 
complete prostration, that they were obliged 
to drag us out; we could not walk, our feet 
were burnt, and our frames famished. We had 
been swimming without a moment’s inter¬ 
mission a distance of six miles, since we left 
Soorajpore. They extricated me first; and 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


185 


having laid me down upon the bank, covered 
me with one of their blankets. The others 
shortly followed, and being equally done up, 
were indulged for a few minutes in like man¬ 
ner. I had on me no clothing but a flannel 
shirt. My coat and trousers, such as they 
were, had been taken off in the river to facili¬ 
tate progress. That flannel shirt I very 
greatly respect: it went into the siege a bright 
pink, just as it had come from the hands of 
Messrs. Thresher and Glenny, who delight in 
such gaieties; but if these very respectable ven¬ 
dors could see it now, they would never accredit 
it as from their establishment. Lieutenant 
Delafosse had nothing in the shape of clothing 
but a piece of sheeting round his loins; and 
his shoulders were so burnt by exposure to 
the sun, that the skin was raised in huge 
blisters, as if he had just escaped death by 
burning. Sullivan and Murphy were alto¬ 
gether destitute of clothing of any kind, and 
consequently suffered equally from the sun. 
Murphy had a cap-pouch full of rupees tied 
round his right knee; but our generous pre¬ 
servers were not proof against the temptation, 


186 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


so they eased him of this load, and also of a 
ring which he wore, but when they found that 
this was made of English gold,—which on ac¬ 
count of its alloy the natives greatly despise— 
they gave it him back again. After we had 
rested a little, our captors proposed that we 
should go to the adjacent village; and, sup¬ 
ported by a native on each side of us, with 
his hands under our arm-pits, we partly walked 
and were partly carried a distance that seemed 
to us many miles, though not in reality more 
than three or four furlongs. We were so en¬ 
feebled, that in crossing a little current which 
had to be waded, they were obliged to use great 
strength to prevent our being washed away. As 
soon as we reached the village they took us to 
the hut of the zemindar, who received us most 
kindly, commiserated with us upon our hor¬ 
rible condition, and gave us a hearty meal of 
dhal, chupatties, and preserves. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


187 


CHAPTER XII. 

RECEPTION OF THE FOUR SAVED ONES AT MOORAR MHOW 
—ARRANGEMENTS MADE FOR OUR COMFORT—INTERVIEW 
WITH NATIVES—DIRIGBIJAH SINGH’S HOSPITALITY. 

It was the evening of the 29th of June when 
we reached Moorar Mhow, and since the 
night of the 26th we had not tasted solid 
food. We soon asked for some information 
about the missing boat, and if it had passed 
down the river. They told us that it had 
been seized by a party of the Nana’s men, and 
carried back to Cawnpore. While we were 
taking our food, a great crowd of the villagers 
surrounded the hut, and gazed with profound 
astonishment at us. They could scarcely be¬ 
lieve that we had eluded all the precautions 
taken to effect our capture, although we were 
visibly before them. They said it was “ Kliuda * 


188 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

Jci-mirzee ” (the will of God), and I suppose few 
will doubt that they were right. The meal being 
finished, Delafosse and I lay down upon two 
charpoys (native beds), and the privates upon 
the floor, and we were soon fast asleep. They 
woke us between five and six o’clock, to say 
that a retainer of their rajah had come to con¬ 
duct us to the fort of Moorar Mhow. No 
clothing was furnished us, though Delafosse 
borrowed a blanket from the zemindar to cover 
his nakedness. The walking was exquisite 
torture, from the condition of our feet, and 
our progress was dilatory indeed until about 
half-way, when guides met us, with an ele¬ 
phant and pony. Sullivan and Murphy were 
suffering so much from their wounds that we 
gave them the elephant, and Delafosse and 
I bestrode the pony. The relief afforded by 
the quiet all around us, and by the returning 
sense of security, no words could describe. 
We passed through several villages, in which 
our story had preceded us, and the ryots came 
out with milk and sweetmeats, of which we 
thankfully partook. Buffalo’s milk and native 
sweets were truly delicious fare. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 189 

Night had set in when we reached the resi¬ 
dence of Dirigbijah Singh. The rajah, a 
venerable old man, was sitting out of doors 
surrounded by his retainers; his vakeel was at 
his right; his two sons close at hand, and 
his body-guard, armed with swords, shields, 
and matchlocks. The whole group formed a 
most picturesque scene as lighted up by the 
attendant torch-bearers; they were altogether 
a strictly oriental company of about a hundred 
and fifty in number. The pony and elephant 
having been brought into the centre, we 
alighted and salaamed to the rajah. He had 
the whole tale of the siege narrated to him 
by us, asked after our respective rank in the 
army, and having expressed great admiration 
at our doings, ordered us a supper with abun¬ 
dance of native wine, assured us of our safety, 
promised hospitality, and had us shown to our 
apartment. All the domestic arrangements 
were in strictly native order, so that they had 
no beds to spare for us; it must be remem¬ 
bered that our touch would have defiled them 
for ever; they provided us with straw to lie 
upon, and gave us a sutringee each (a piece of 


N 


190 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

carpet) to cover our bodies. Oh ! that night s 
rest; thankful, but weary were we; amidst 
many thoughts that chased each other through 
my distracted brain, I remember one ludi¬ 
crously vivid—it was this :—how excellent an 
investment that guinea had proved which I 
spent a year or two before at the baths in 
Holborn, learning to swim! And then the 
straw upon which we lay, though only fit for 
a paupers bed in the vagrant ward of some 
English workhouse, it was to us welcome as 
the choicest down. In the morning a hukeem 
(native doctor), was sent to dress our wounds; 
Sullivan and Murphy were suffering greatly; 
my back and. thigh were comparatively well, 
but the recent crack in the skull was acutely 
painful. Marvellous to say, Delafosse had 
not received a single wound. The doctor 
applied mm-leaf poultices, a very favourite 
recipe with the native leeches, but I found 
them so desperately irritating that I declined 
a second application of the kind. The native 
tailor came also by the rajah’s directions, and 
furnished us with trousers and coat each, of 
native cut; and when Hindustani shoes were 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 191 

added to our toilet, we felt quite respectable 
again. Our host asked us how often we 
should like our meals. And he kindly 
arranged for us to have breakfast, luncheon, 
and a late dinner, each day; a great thing for 
a native house to accomplish, as the Brahmins, 
to whose company our friend belonged, only 
cook once a day, and all the feeding for the 
twenty-four hours is done with them at mid¬ 
day. The supplies they gave us were good, 
consisting of dhal, chupatties, rice, and milk; 
twice during the month we stayed at this 
hospitable residence they gave us kid’s meat, 
the only animal food they touch; and when a 
Brahmin has performed a pilgrimage to one of 
their shrines, he eats no animal food at all 
henceforth. But sweeter than these repasts 
was the sleep; day after day, and week after 
week we indulged in it, as if we had been fed 
upon' opiates. The only interruption we suf¬ 
fered was caused by the immense number of 
flies, which, attracted by the wounds, occasioned 
us considerable annoyance. 

We were allowed to walk about anywhere 
within the fort, but not beyond its sheltering 
n 2 


192 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

walls, for the whole neighbourhood was 
swarming with rebels. They frequently came 
inside the fort, and even into our room, armed 
to the teeth, but they did not dare to molest 
us, as some of the rajah’s body-guard were 
always in attendance upon us when we received 
company. Many a conversation we had with 
Sepoys. Some men of the 56th Native Infantry 
and others of the 53d Native Infantry, my own 
regiment, visited us, and talked freely over the 
state of affairs in general. The most frequent 
assertion made by them was, that our raj was at 
an end. I used to tell them they were talking 
nonsense, for in a short time reinforcements 
would arrive; seventy or eighty thousand 
British troops would land in India and turn the 
tide the old way; “ then the muskets you have 
in your hands,” I said, “ with the Government 
mark upon them, will change hands.” 

“ No, no,” they said ; “ the Nana has sent 
a sowar on a camel to Russia for assistance.” 

I roared with laughter at the suggestion of 
such an expedition. 

“ What are you laughing at, Lord Sahib ? ” 

« Oh, you are not very well up in your 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


193 


geography to talk in that fashion; a camel 
might as well be sent to England for help.” 

“ The Nana says he has done so.” 

“ Suppose you gain the country, what shall 
you do with us ? ” 

“The Nana will send you all down to Cal¬ 
cutta and ship you home, and when he has 
conquered India, he will embark for England 
and conquer that country.” 

“ Why, you Brahmins will not go to sea, 
will you ? ” 

“ 0 yes; only we shall not cook upon the 
voyage.” 

With such canards as these, the Bithoor 
man has imposed upon the imbecile hordes 
around him; they believe that the Russians 
are all Mahommedans, and that the armies 
of the Czar are to liberate the faithful and 
their land from the yoke of the Feringhees. 
Another of the Nana’s fables is, that certain 
water-mills which were erected by the Com¬ 
pany for grinding grain at a fixed charge for 
the villagers, were implements in the great 
work of forcible conversion, and that in the said 
mills pig-bone dust was mixed with the flour. 


194 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


The annexation of Oude was always upon 
their tongues; they grew energetic in dis¬ 
cussing this theme, and said that in conse¬ 
quence of that one act the Company’s raj 
would cease. It is very remarkable that the 
old prophecy of the Brahmin pundits, current 
in India ever since the battle of Plassy, that 
the Company’s raj would last only one hundred 
years, has been verified, though not in the 
manner nor in the sense predicted. “ What 
is the Company?” is a question often dis¬ 
cussed in the villages, and various and con¬ 
flicting are the answers that have been 
promulgated in reply; the most prevalent 
opinion among the poor benighted swarthy 
subjects of the far-reaching rule of the poten¬ 
tates of Leadenhall Street, having been that 
the said Company was a nondescript brute, 
that swayed their destinies with a resistless 
sceptre; its species, genus, habitat all unknown, 
but only 

“ Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen 
ademptum.” 

Three times, during our stay at Moorar 
Mhow, the Nana sent down to our friendly 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


195 


protector ordering him to surrender our per¬ 
sons. A sowar of the 2d Cavalry, and some 
Sepoys of the 56th Native Infantry brought 
the demand; the last came into our apart¬ 
ment, had a chat with us, and asked us how 
we managed to escape. Our generous old 
host was deaf to all their persuasions and 
threats, and sent back word that he was 
a tributary to the King of Oude, and knew 
nothing of the Nana’s raj. If Nana Azi- 
moolah & Co. had not had more important 
business in hand, they would have certainly 
attacked our refuge, rather than have allowed 
one relic of the Cawnpore garrison to escape 
alive; but there is this charm about thackoor 
hospitality—once claimed, it is not to be dis¬ 
honoured by a trifle. 

News from Lucknow occasionally reached 
us, though by no means so reliable as the 
graphic communications of that prince of 
correspondents, the worthy Mr. Russell; for 
instance, we were told that the Muchee Bhowan 
had blown up with two hundred Europeans in 
it. One day the Punjaub was lost, another 
day Madras and Bombay were gone into 


196 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


mutiny; then a hundred thousand Sikhs were 
said to be marching south to exterminate the 
English. Our informants believed for them¬ 
selves all these rumours, and, in fact, it was 
by such fictions that their wily leaders main¬ 
tained the hold they had upon them. 

Every day the Rajah came to pay us a visit 
and talk with us kindly, and he often told us 
that as soon as the adjacent country was quiet, 
he would forward us to Allahabad. 

Much amusement was afforded us by seeing 
the daily performance of the devotions of this 
rigid Brahmin. A little temple detached from 
the residence was the sphere of operation. 
The priest, Khangee Loll by name, used to 
go first and prepare the offerings; divesting 
himself of his shoes at the temple door, he 
walked in, and arranged beautiful flowers 
which had been plucked with the dew upon 
them, and deposited at the threshold by at¬ 
tendant Brahmins. All round the offerings 
these floral decorations were arranged with 
admirable effect in relation to their various 
hues. 

When the Rajah and his two sons made their 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 197 

entry, the shasters were taken out: all four of 
the worshippers intoned portions of these writ¬ 
ings amidst the tinkling of bells by the priest. 
After this, water from the Ganges was poured 
upon the flowers, and the daily service was 
complete. 

The Ranee often inquired after us by means 
of messengers. We never saw her ladyship, 
but the attendants told us, that the Venetians 
of her apartments were not impenetrably 
opaque from within, and that the old lady had 
seen us, and was concerned for our welfare. 
Nothing that could contribute to our comfort 
escaped the kind and minute thoughtfulness 
of Dirigbijah Singh. I wish he could read 
English, and peruse my humble effort to ex« 
press the gratitude I owe to him. 

After we had been three weeks at Moorar 
Mhow, petted in this way by its generous 
proprietor, the tidings came that a steamer 
had gone up the Ganges. This was a vessel 
sent up by General Havelock from Allahabad 
to explore in the Cawnpore region. In con¬ 
sequence of this, and because a native who had 
been in the service of the railroad told him 


198 THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 

that if he did not make arrangements to send 
us away, our stay might be interpreted into a 
forcible detention, the Rajah had us conveyed 
down to a little hamlet within his territory, on 
the banks of the river. An elephant, escorted 
by a guard, conveyed us thither at night; the 
parting was quiet, in order that the attention 
of the rebels in the neighbourhood might not 
be excited. With abundant expressions of 
thanks, and some regret, we said farewell to 
the old brick. I am enabled, with sincere 
gratification, to add, that Dirigbijah Singh’s 
claims upon the gratitude of the Government 
of India have not been overlooked; and his 
loyalty to the Company at a time when almost 
the whole of Oude was in rebellion, and his 
generosity to us poor friendless refugees, have 
met with the well-deserved recognition of a 
handsome pension. “ May his shadow never 
be less.” 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


199 


CHAPTER XIII. 

SENT DOWN TO THE RIVER—RELICS OP EUROPEAN PRO- 
PERTY—REJOIN OUR OWN CAMP—FOLLOWING HAVELOCK 
—RE-ENTER CAWNPORE—ANOTHER LOOK AT THE WELL 
AND THE INTRENCHMENT. 


Our residence at the little hut on the bank of 
the river was one of the strictest seclusion. 
Provisions were brought to us twice a day, 
and a native guard was posted at the door. 
One day the sentry told us that all kinds of 
European furniture and papers were floating 
down the river, and, at my request, he went 
to the ghaut to see if he could catch anything, 
and presently returned with a volume bearing 
the well-known inscription, “ 53 d Regiment, 
Native Infantry Booh ClubI This was all 
he could get of the debris of houses, library, 
and offices, but it was enough to indicate the 


200 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

extent of the destruction effected by the rebels 
when the recapture of Cawnpore by General 
Havelock was impending. After remaining 
five or six dpys in our retreat, the Rajah came 
to us, and said, as no more steamers appeared 
to be going up the river, he had made arrange¬ 
ments to convey us on the morrow to a friendly 
zemindar, who lived in the neighbourhood of 
Futtehpore, and who had engaged to take 
measures for our safe conduct to the nearest 
European encampment. Accordingly, the next 
morning we were ferried across the river, and 
escorted to our new host. When we ap¬ 
proached the zemindar, he held out his hand 
with a rupee upon the palm, the native intima¬ 
tion of fidelity to the state. We touched the 
coin, and the covenant of hospitality was thus 
in simple formality settled. The old Rajah of 
Moorah Mhow had evidently provided for our 
safety and comfort, as nothing was omitted 
in these new quarters that could conduce to 
either. On the morning of the third day 
after crossing from Oude, a bullock hackery 
was drawn up to the zemindar’s hut, and, 
escorted by four of his men, we were driven 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 201 

in the direction of Allahabad. It was a cross¬ 
country road, and our vehicle was innocent of 
all springs; but we were at last on the way 
to our own flag, and not by any^ means in a 
state of mind to indulge in complaints or 
criticisms. After four or five miles of jolting, 
the native driver, in great alarm, said there 
were guns planted in the road; we looked 
a-head, but for some time saw no troops. In 
a short time an English sentry appeared in 
view, and I walked up to him. Upon his 
giving the challenge, I told him we wished 
to be taken to his commanding officer. Our 
bronzed countenances, grim beards, huge 
turbans, and tout-ensemble caused them to 
take us for a party of Affghans. However, 
Murphy soon recognised some of his old com¬ 
rades of the 84th; and they greeted us with 
a truly British cheer, though for a long time 
dubious of our statement that we had escaped 
from the massacre of Cawnpore. We were 
speedily introduced to the officers of the party, 
which proved to be a detachment, consisting 
of part of the 84th Regiment and half of 
Olphert’s battery, going up to Cawnpore. Lieu- 


202 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


tenant, now Captain Woolhouse, of the 84th; 
Captain Young, of the 4th Native Infantry; 
and Lieutenant Smithett, of Olphert’s battery, 
gave us a hearty reception. The whole camp 
was impatient for our story, and we equally 
impatient to partake of English fare. Never 
was the beer of our country more welcome; 
and that first meal, interspersed with a fire of 
cross-questioning about the siege and our 
subsequent history, inquiries after lost com¬ 
rades and relatives, and occasional hints at the 
masquerade style of our accoutrement, made a 
strangely mingled scene of congratulation, 
humour, lamentation, and good-will. Our 
hunger appeased, the best arrangements pos¬ 
sible were made for our comfort. Captain 
Woolhouse gave me a share of his waggon, 
Captain Young contributed from his ward¬ 
robe ; Lieutenant Smithett shared his creature 
comforts with Delafosse. Sullivan and Murphy 
were dealt with in like manner by the non¬ 
commissioned officers and privates, and the 
exceeding kindness of the whole company 
was brought to bear upon our forlorn and 
indigent condition. Captain Woolhouse’s ser- 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


203 


vant shaved my head all round the wound, 
and the surgeon’s dresser of the 84th bound 
it up. 

The detachment we had joined was in Have¬ 
lock’s rear, and about thirty miles from Cawn- 
pore, so that we were once more on the road 
to the centre of the war and the site of our old 
calamities. As we passed along the way, we 
often saw the bodies of natives hanging to the 
trees, sometimes two or three, and in one 
instance seven hanging from one tree, in 
various stages of destruction from jackals and 
vultures. These were criminals who had been 
executed by the General’s order; one of them 
for attempting to sell poisoned liquor to the 
troops, others in consequence of having been 
identified as mutinous sepoys. 

The traces of the General’s battles were 
strewn on all sides of our route,—pieces of gun 
carriages, remains of hastily improvised in- 
trenchments; and in one village there were a 
couple of the enemy’s guns, which had been 
taken and left behind spiked. While upon 
the march, letters were received by Captain 
Woolhouse from General Neill, warning him 


204 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

to keep a good look-out, as the enemy s 
cavalry were reported to be close to the road 
on the left side; several alarms were given, 
but no attack upon us was made. 

In one of the villages some of the 84th 
men had strayed, and while engaged in some 
expedition which involved their own personal 
advantage, they caught sight of some horse¬ 
men, and panic-stricken they returned, shout¬ 
ing, “ The cavalry are coming. 5 ’ The column 
was halted, further inquiries made, and the 
formidable foe proved to be some syces on the 
Government post-horses who had decamped, 
fearing that the foragers would steal their 
cattle. In three days after joining Captain 
Woolhouse, we re-entered Cawnpore. When 
we came in sight of the old intrenched posi¬ 
tion, I went off to survey each well-remem¬ 
bered post of anxious observation. Where 
we had left parched and sunburnt ground, 
covered with round-shot, fragments of shell 
and grape, the grass was now luxuriantly 
thick. It seemed as though Nature had been 
anxious to conceal the earth’s face, and shut 
out as far as possible the traces of the suffer- 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 205 

ings caused by some, and endured by others 
of her sons. It was early morning when I 
went alone and pondered over that silent well, 
and its unutterable memories. Fragments of 
sepoy skeletons were kicked up by the feet 
here and there, while the walls of the barracks 
were pitted and scored all over with shot 
marks. There was not a square yard in 
either of the buildings free from the scars of 
shot. I went in the same solitude all round 
the principal posts of the enemy, the mess- 
house, and the church, where a few weeks 
before I had seen hundreds of natives swarm¬ 
ing around us in the hope of compassing the 
destruction of every European life there. 
Many times afterwards I paced the same 
position, but never with the emotions of that 
first lonely retrospect. Coming up again with 
the column, I entered with them the new 
intren.chment which had been made by Lieu¬ 
tenant Russell of the Engineers under General 
Neill. As soon as it got wind that we had 
arrived, General Neill sent for Lieutenant 
Delafosse and myself, heard the outlines of 
our story, and honoured us with an invitation 


o 


206 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

to dine with him the same evening. The 
General appointed Delafosse to assist Major 
Bruce, whose manifold duties of police pre¬ 
sented a fair field for constant occupation, as 
they involved secret service, executions, raising 
native police, and the sale of plunder. I was 
appointed by General Havelock assistant field 
engineer to his force under Colonel Crom- 
melin, in the superintendence of works to 
resist a second attack upon Cawnpore. Cap¬ 
tain Woolhouse, our generous benefactor and 
friend, went with Havelock to Lucknow, and 
lost an arm there; he was the only officer who 
survived amputation in that campaign. One 
of the earliest casualties after our arrival was 
the death of Captain Young, who had served 
under Havelock in Persia, had followed him 
to Cawnpore as a volunteer, and was now 
occupied in raising police at Puttehpore, a 
most hazardous service, as he was alone in 
the midst of an excited multitude of natives. 
He dined with General Neill, went to sleep in 
Colonel Olphert’s tent, and died of cholera the 
next morning. This officer was, as well as a 
thorough soldier, a most accomplished linguist, 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 207 

and was famous for that rare attainment 
amongst Europeans, his most exquisite Persian 
writing. 

Mj familiarity with the details of the siege 
introduced me to many an expedition of 
parties of officers to the melancholy site. I had 
the honour of pointing out to Generals Neill 
and Sir Hope Grant, as well as to Captain 
Layard, of Nineveh celebrity, the chief points 
of interest, besides accompanying thither 
brother officers who had lost friends and rela¬ 
tives on that carnage-ground. 


o2 


208 


the story oe cawnpore. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

INQUIRIES AFTER WOMEN AND SURVIVORS FROM VIBART’S 
BOAT—THE HOUSE OF HORRORS—HORRIBLE SUFFERINGS 
OF CAPTIVES—BRUTAL MASSACRE—RELICS OF SLAIN. 

Mr. Sherer, the newly appointed magistrate 
of Cawnpore, who had come up with Have¬ 
lock’s force, exerted himself to the utmost to 
obtain all possible information respecting the 
fate of those who had not been shot at the 
time of embarkation, as well as of the party 
taken back in Major Vibart s boat from 
Soorajpore. He had prosecuted most exten¬ 
sive inquiries throughout the native city, and 
the most reliable accounts which he obtained 
were in purport as follows. 

After the men, who had not escaped in the 
two boats, had all been shot at the ghaut, the 


the story of cawnpore. 209 

women and children were dragged out of the 
water into the presence of the Nana, who 
ordered them to be confined in one of the 
buildings opposite the Assembly rooms; the 
Nana himself taking up his residence in the 
hotel which was close at hand. When Major 
Vibart’s boat was brought back from Sooraj- 
pore, that party also was taken in to the 
Nana’s presence, and he ordered the men and 
women to be separated; the former to be shot, 
and the remainder to join the captives in the 
dwelling or dungeon beside the hotel. Mrs. 
Boyes, the wife of Dr. Boyes, of the 2d 
Cavalry, refused to be separated from her 
husband; other ladies of the party resisted, 
but were forcibly torn away, a work of not 
much difficulty when their wounded, famished 
state is considered. All the efforts, however, 
of the sepoys to sever Mrs. Boyes from her 
husband were unavailing; they were there¬ 
fore all drawn up in a line just in front 
of the Assembly rooms. Captain Seppings 
asked to be allowed to read prayers ; this 
poor indulgence was given ;—they shook 
hands with one another, and the sepoys fired 


210 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 


upon them. Those that were not killed by 
the volley, they despatched with their tulwars. 
The spy wdio communicated these facts could 
not tell what became of the corpses, but there 
is little doubt they were thrown into the river, 
that being the native mode of disposing of 
them. Captain Seppings, Lieutenant Quin, 
and Dr. Boyes, were all the officers that I 
know certainly to have been of that unhappy 
number. As 1 never could gather that Major 
Yibart or Lieutenant Masters were there, I 
suspect they died of their wounds while being 
taken back. The wretched company of 
women and children now consisted of 210, 
viz. 163 survivors from the Cawnpore garri¬ 
son, and 47 refugees from Lutteyghur, of 
whom that Bithoor butcher had murdered all 
the males except three officers, whose lives he 
spared for some purpose, but for what it is 
impossible to say. The captives were fed with 
only one meal a day of dhal and chupatties, 
and these of the meanest sort; they had to eat 
out of earthen pans, and the food was served 
by menials of the lowest caste (meliter), which 
in itself was the greatest indignity that 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


211 


easterns could cast upon them. They had 
no furniture, no beds, not even straw to lie 
down upon, but only coarse bamboo matting 
of the roughest make. The bouse in which 
they were incarcerated had formerly been 
occupied as the dwelling of a native clerk; it 
comprised two principal rooms, each about 
twenty feet long and ten broad, and besides 
these a number of dark closets rather than 
rooms, which had been originally intended for 
the use of native servants ; in addition to 
these, a court-yard about fifteen yards square 
presented the only accommodation for these 
two hundred most wretched victims of a 
brutality in comparison with which hereafter 
the black hole of Calcutta and its sharp but 
short agonies must sink into insignificance. 
It is said that during the former part of their 
captivity, several of them went to the Nana 
imploring some commiseration with their 
wretched state, but in vain; and they desisted 
altogether from such applications in conse¬ 
quence of one of their number having been 
cruelly ill-treated by the brutal soldiery. Closely 
guarded by armed sepoys, many of them 


212 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


suffering from wounds, all of them emaciated 
with scanty food, and deprived of all means 
of cleanliness, the deep, dark horrors of the 
prisoners in that dungeon must remain to 
their full extent unknown, and even un¬ 
imagined. 

The spies, all of them, however, persisted in 
the statement, that no indignities were com¬ 
mitted upon their virtue; and as far as the 
most penetrating investigation into their most 
horrible fate has proceeded, there is reason 
to hope that one, and only one exception to 
the bitterest of anguish was allotted to them, 
—immunity from the brutal violence of their 
captors’ worst passions. Fidelity requires that 
I should allege what appears to me the only 
reason of their being thus spared. When the 
siege had terminated, such was the loathsome 
condition into which, from long destitution 
and exposure, the fairest and youngest of our 
women had sunk, that not a sepoy would have 
polluted himself with their touch. 

The advance of General Havelock, and his 
attempt to liberate them, brought the crisis 
of their fate. Azimoolah persuaded the Nana 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 213 

that the General was only marching upon 
Cawnpore in the hope of rescuing the women 
and children, and that if they were killed, the 
British forces would retire, and leave India. 

All accounts agree in the statement, that 
the feted honoured guest of the London season 
of 1854, was the prime instigator in the most 
foul and bloody massacre of 1857. 

On the 13th of July, Havelock encountered 
the Nana s troops at Futtehpore, under Teekah 
Singh, a resildar of the 2d Cavalry. The valo¬ 
rous chief and his little band totally routed the 
sepoys, captured all their guns, and scattered 
their survivors, in utter confusion, back to¬ 
wards Cawnpore. The marvel of this victory 
was not so much in success, as in success 
under such circumstances. Havelock’s column 
had marched twenty-four miles that day, and 
Major Renaud’s nineteen miles, under the 
heat of a July sun. On the 15th of July, the 
British forces were again engaged, with like 
results, at Pandoo Nuddy:—on that day the 
Nana put all his captives to death. Havelock 
w r as then twenty-four miles from Cawnpore. 
On the 16th he fought another action, defeat- 


214 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 


ing the Nana in person, after a battle of two 
hours and a half. On the morning of the 
17th, General Havelock entered the city, from 
which the native populace had fled in every 
direction to the villages adjacent. 

Short, but frequent, were the despatches 
that marked his triumphant progress along 
the path of fire. The following is that which 
he drew breath to pen on the 17th of July :— 

“ By the blessing of God, I recaptured this 
place yesterday, and totally defeated Nana 
Sahib in person, taking more than six guns, 
four of siege calibre. The enemy were 
strongly posted behind a succession of villages, 
and obstinately disputed for the one hundred 
and forty minutes, every inch of the ground; 
but I was enabled, by a flank movement to 
my right, to turn his left, and this gave us the 
victory. Nana Sahib had barbarously mur¬ 
dered all the captive women and children, 
before the engagement. He has retired to 
Bithoor, and blew up this morning, on his 
retreat, the Cawnpore magazine. He is said 
to be strongly fortified. I have not yet been 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 215 

able to get in the return of the killed and 
wounded, but estimate my loss at about 
seventy, chiefly from the fire of grape.” 

The explosion of the magazine referred to 
in this despatch, we heard at Moorar Mhow, a 
distance of thirty miles, as distinctly as if it 
had been the firing of a gun in the Rajah’s 
fort. 

When Mr. Sherer entered the house of 
horrors, in which the slaughter of the women 
had been perpetrated, the rooms were covered 
with human gore; articles of clothing that 
had belonged to women and children, collars, 
combs, shoes, caps, and little round hats, 
w T ere found steeped in blood; the walls were 
spattered with blood, the mats on the floor 
saturated, the plaster sides of the place were 
scored with sword cuts, and pieces of long 
hair were all about the room. No writing 
was upon the walls ; and it is supposed that 
the inscriptions, which soon became numerous, 
were put there by the troops, to infuriate each 
other in the work of revenging the atrocities 
that had been perpetrated there. There is no 


216 THE, STORY OF CA.WNPORE. 

doubt that the death of the unhappy victims 
was accomplished by the sword, and that their 
bodies, stripped of all clothing, were thrown 
into an adjacent well. 

A Bible was found that had belonged to 
Miss Blair, in which she had written— 

“ 27th June. Went to the boats. 

29th-. Taken out of boats. 

30th-. Taken to Sevadah Kothi, fatal day.” 

One officer who was present, wrote, “I 
picked up a mutilated Prayer-book; it had 
lost the cover, but on the fly-leaf is written, 

‘ Por dearest mamma, from her affectionate 
Louis, June, 1845/ It appears to me to 
have been opened on page 36, in the Litany, 
where I have but little doubt those poor dear 
creatures sought and found consolation, in that 
beautiful supplication. It is here sprinkled 
with blood. The book has lost some pages at 
the end, and terminates with the 47th Psalm, 
in which David thanks the Almighty for his 
signal victories over his enemies.” 

The only other authentic writings that were 
left in that den of death, were two pieces of 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 217 

paper, bearing the following words. The first 
was written by one of the Misses Lindsay. 

“ Mamma died, July 12th (i.e. Mrs. G. Lindsay). 

Alice died, July 9th (daughter of above). 

George died, June 27th (Ensign G. Lindsay, 10th N.I.). 
Entered the barracks, May 21st. 

Cavalry left, June 5th. 

First shot fired, June 6th. 

Uncle Willy died, June 18th (Major W. Lindsay). 

Aunt Lilly died, June 17 (Mrs. W. Lindsay). 

Left barracks, June 27th.” 

The other, in an unknown hand, ran thus :— 

“ We went into the barracks on the 21st of 
May. The 2d Cavalry broke out at two o’clock 
in the morning of the 5th of June, and the 
other regiments went off during the day. The 
next morning, while we were sitting out in 
front of the barracks, a twenty-four-pounder 
came flying along, and hit the intrenchment, 
and from that day the firing went on till the 
25th of June, when the enemy sent a treaty, 
which the General agreed to, and on the 27th 
we all left the B (intrenched barracks) to go 
down to A (Allahabad) in boats; when we 
got to the river, the enemy began firing on 
us, killed all the gentlemen, and some of the 


218 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


ladies; set fire to the boats, some were 
drowned, and we were taken prisoners, and 
taken to a house, put all in one room.” 

In a native doctor’s house there was found 
a list of the captives, written in Hindee; and 
from this it appears, that a number of the 
sufferers died from their wounds, and from 
cholera, which broke out in their midst. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


219 


CHAPTER XV. 


STATE OF CAWNPORE IN AUTUMN OF 1857— FORTIFICATIONS 
—DEPARTURE OF HAVELOCK FOR LUCKNOW—ADVENTURES 
OF ENSIGN BROWN. 

The critical months of May, June, and July, 
had at length gone; and British ascendancy 
in India was no longer the subject of uncer¬ 
tainty. Every gun fired by the advancing 
regiments, on the banks of the Ganges, 
sounded the knell of the rebellion; although 
the greater portion of the Bengal Presidency, 
and the whole of Oude, were overrun by bands 
of sepoys, in different stages of discipline, from 
the fine and martial bearing of the Gwalior 
Contingent, down to the tatterdemalion state 
of some of the Nana’s oft-defeated miscreants. 
Cawnpore had not yet ceased to be the object 
of solicitude, in consequence of the vast num- 


220 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

bers of these rebel hordes hovering about its 
neighbourhood, and this city could claim but 
a'limited portion of General Havelock’s atten¬ 
tion, as he was pressing on to Lucknow, lest 
the pent-up garrison in that place should 
suffer a repetition of the disasters and atro¬ 
cities which he had been unable to avert from 
the former station. 

As Havelock could scarcely spare a man 
from his limited resources, the officers of 
his Engineer corps were busily occupied in 
strengthening the position, by works of defence. 
Colonels Crommelin and McLeod, and Cap¬ 
tains Impey and Watson, were the officers 
upon whom, at different times, these works 
devolved; and under each of them I had the 
honour of serving as Assistant-Eield-Engineer, 
from the 6th of August to the 1st of Decem¬ 
ber, 1857. 

The whole of our fortifications for the second 
defence of Cawnpore were made by native 
labourers; men, women, and children having 
been employed upon them to the number 
of four thousand at a time. The modus 
ojoerandi was exceedingly primitive, and quite 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 221 

innocent of the artistic contrivances which have 
been brought to bear on earthworks at home. 
The digging was done by the men, and the 
women and the boys carried away the earth, 
as all eastern porterage is accomplished on 
the head. The payment of this labour per 
diem, i.e. from daybreak to sunset, being for 
men twopence, for women and boys one 
penny each. The accounts were settled every 
evening; and it involved no small labour to 
hand to each of the black children of toil his 
trifling wage. All about the tent during the 
pay-time, the chattering and jabbering of the 
multitude, could be compared only to the vocal 
demonstrations of some crowded old rookery. 
It was quite impossible to depute the work of 
payment to the native overseers, for it had 
been found upon experiment that the poor 
coolies complained the next morning most 
terribly of the exactions they had suffered, in 
consequence of the pice-bag being placed 
under native administration. These same 
inspectors, or sub-contractors, stood all day 
eagerly watching the labours of their respec¬ 
tive gangs, and in the distribution of their 


p 


222 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

chastisements were not always scrupulously 
particular to exempt the softer sex. 

However, Mr. Overseer, when detected in 
peculations upon the earnings of his hirelings, 
came in himself for an occasional touch of a 
riding whip, the only influence under which 
he seemed at all susceptible to lessons of 
honesty. In less than a month these black, 
ant-like navvies, threw up earthworks of very 
considerable dimensions. They reared a wall 
seven feet high, eighteen feet thick, and half a 
mile in length; turfed over to prevent its 
being washed away by the rains ; it was fitted 
with sally-ports and gates; field magazines, 
both expense and permanent; embrasures, 
and platforms for the guns, made of brick- 
on-edge, set in concrete by native masons. 
Besides this inner line of circumvallation, the 
outworks, planned by Colonel McLeod, in¬ 
cluded a mile of parapet, and these were con¬ 
nected with the enceinte , by a covered way. 
We were putting the finishing touch to the 
outworks, and had just got the guns there 
in position, when the Gwalior Contingent 
advanced upon us;.and our vast crowd of 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 223 

labourers, male and female, made for their 
village homes with beautiful expedition. 

It was a great day at Cawnpore when the 
three generals, Outram, Havelock, and Neill, 
left for the relief of Lucknow. Overdone 
with fatigue, and suffering from fever, aggra¬ 
vated by the wound in my head, I was, by the 
doctor s order, confined to my tent. Having 
acquired sufficient knowledge of artillery to 
serve with that branch of the profession, I had 
been posted to Maude’s battery; and although 
unwell at the time, had indulged the hope to 
the last moment that I should be able to 
accompany the gallant band; but the orders 
of the medical inspectors were peremptory, so 
I had to lay by a month and lose a Lucknow 
medal. 

I saw the regiments cross the bridge of boats, 
and from my bed witnessed their first engage¬ 
ment at Oonao, about a mile and a half on the 
other side of the river; by the aid of the tele¬ 
scope we could distinctly discern the uniforms, 
and the affair looked very like a review. Strange 
difference made by the metal between a ball 
and a blank cartridge ! This was Havelock's 

p 2 


224 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

final advance upon Lucknow. On the previous 
occasion he had been driven back by the in¬ 
roads which cholera had made upon his little 
force. This time he was successful in reaching 
the city—it was the last of his brilliant exploits. 
General Neill was killed at the entrance of the 
city, and Havelock and Outram, instead of 
marching out with the relieved garrison, as 
they had hoped to have done, were surrounded 
by the natives in great force, and shut up in 
the garrison until the arrival of Sir Colin 
Campbell in November. But as the details 
of these events belong to Lucknow history, 
and have been written elsewhere, it behoves 
me, as the chronicler of Cawnpore, to limit my 
narrative to affairs connected with this latter 
city. 

The only cavalry that Havelock had was the 
celebrated volunteer corps, one troop of which 
consisted of officers of regiments which had 
mutinied, the other of privates picked from 
European regiments for their skill in horse¬ 
manship, together with civil engineers and 
gentlemen settlers in India, who had been 
drawn out by the dangers of the times. The 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 225 

achievements of this mounted force were of no 
ordinary character, and quite in keeping with 
the select materials of which it was composed. 
Headed by General Outram, (who himself 
acted as a volunteer, and nobly deferred the 
command to Havelock,) they took two guns 
and the colours of the 1st Native Infantry. 
In this skirmish General Outram was wounded, 
and some of his companions requested him 
to dismount, and enter a dhooly. “ No, no,” 
was the answer, “ I don’t dismount till we 
enter the Baillie Guard in Lucknow.” 

But I have chiefly reverted to this volunteer 
corps, because one of its number was an offi¬ 
cer belonging to the Cawnpore garrison, and al¬ 
though exempted from the sufferings endured in 
the three weeks’ siege we had undergone, he had 
elsewhere to suffer as large a share of tribu¬ 
lation as any of our number. I refer to Ensign 
Brown, of the 56th Native Infantry. At the 
time the mutiny broke out, a detachment of 
the 56th, under the command of Lieut. Raikes, 
was away from Cawnpore upon some special 
service. The sepoys mutinied, and these two 
officers had to escape for their lives. After a 


226 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


protracted and fugitive experience, they were 
joined in the neighbourhood of Huineerpore by 
two civilians who had escaped from that station, 
Messrs. Grant and Lloyd. When the four 
reached the Jumna, there was some difference 
as to the route they should take, and accord¬ 
ingly they separated. Nothing more was ever 
heard, I believe, of the civilians. Brown told 
me a most remarkable story of his adventures. 
His companion, Lieut. Baikes, was very deli¬ 
cate in health, and totally unfit for the expo¬ 
sure to the heat and the starvation they had to 
endure; at length he sank under exhaustion, 
and Brown ran in every direction to find water 
for him. The search was protracted, though 
at last successful; that is to say, he managed 
to get his handkerchief thoroughly wet, and 
carried it back to the spot in which he imagined 
he had left his fainting companion. But all 
his efforts to discover Lieut. Baikes were in 
vain. He wandered about and shouted, but 
could find no trace of him, and, famished and 
weary, he was obliged to give up the search in 
despair. For a fortnight afterwards he con¬ 
tinued roaming, and hiding, sometimes receiv- 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 227 

ing shelter and food as the result of his appli¬ 
cation to the natives, and sometimes being 
treated with such contumely as to be actually 
spit upon. But at last he reached a village 
near Futtehpore, shoeless, half-starved, and 
altogether in most miserable plight. He re¬ 
mained there till General Havelock arrived, 
and then he joined the volunteers. Brown 
shared in all the battles of the first advance 
to Lucknow. He came back to Cawnpore, 
and died of cholera. He called to see me in 
my tent one afternoon in perfect health—-the 
next morning he was dead. Several officers 
and many privates were cut off in this manner. 
The funerals were all conducted in perfect 
silence; neither volleys were fired, nor bands 
played, lest the frequency of the sepulchral 
rites should cause a panic among the men. 
From the inadequate forces at Cawnpore, when 
General Havelock was anxiously waiting to 
relieve Lucknow, we lost three hundred in 
one week through this horrible disease, which 
always riots with uncontrolled fury on its own 
indigenous soil, the banks of the Ganges. 


228 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

SECOND ATTACK ON CAWNPORE BY GWALIOR CONTINGENT 
—TEMPORARY REVERSE OF GARRISON—ARRIVAL OF SIR 
COLIN CAMPBELL WITH RESCUED GARRISON OF LUCKNOW. 

On the 9th of November, Sir Colin Campbell 
crossed into Oude, leaving General Windham 
in command at Cawnpore. At this date, in 
consequence of the necessary withdrawal of all 
available troops for service before Lucknow, 
there were only left 500 men to constitute the 
force at General Windham’s disposal. The 
departure of the Commander-in-Chief was the 
signal for the advance of the Gwalior Con¬ 
tingent. 

These men—about ten thousand in number 
—were picked sepoys, who constituted the army 
of the Maharajah of Gwalior; they were raised 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 229 

and supported by the East India Company, 
and had been officered by Englishmen. They 
were men of great stature, were reckoned fine 
soldiers, and were thoroughly provided with 
artillery, cavalry, and infantry. 

This force was the only part of the hostile 
troops that held together, and maintained their 
discipline after defeat. Had not the Maha¬ 
rajah held them in, their accession to the 
ranks of the Delhi mutineers would have been 
a frightful accumulation of the difficulties of 
the summer of 1857. But Delhi had fallen 
when these gentlemen threw their strength 
into the tide of revolt, and they were too late 
for a decisive superiority over the British raj, 
though in sufficient time to work considerable 
devastation in the city of Cawnpore. 

Shortly after Sir Colin Campbell's depar¬ 
ture, reinforcements arrived by which General 
Windham's force was increased to 1,700; and 
on the 26th of November, with 1,200 bayo¬ 
nets, he attacked and defeated 3,000 of the 
enemy at the Pandoo river, three miles from 
the camp, to which he brought back three 
captured guns. On the following day, the en- 


230 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

tire body of the Gwalior Contingent, strength¬ 
ened by multitudes who had fled from Oude, 
and composing altogether an army of 20,000 
men, surrounded Cawnpore,—in front from 
the Calpee Road to the Ganges Canal, and in 
flank attack from the Delhi Road to the 
Bithoor Road, and managed to effect an en¬ 
trance into the city. The following extract 
from Colonel Adye’s “ Defence of Cawnpore ” 
will best explain the critical position of affairs 
on this day :— 

“ Various criticisms have been passed upon 
the conduct of operations on this eventful day. 
It is not necessary to notice them here, as it 
is conceived that a plain statement of facts 
will be the best reply. It will be evident that 
the success of the enemy—although they 
fought well, especially with their artillery— 
was due rather to their immense superiority 
in number of men and guns, than to any 
other cause. General Windham considered it 
his duty to endeavour to save the city from 
pillage, but his numbers proved inadequate to 
cover so extended a front. No sooner was 
the enemy beaten back at one point, than they 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


231 


appeared in force at another. One or two 
minor errors were committed in the transmis¬ 
sion of, and carrying out, his orders, but 
they did not probably materially affect the 
result. 

“The number of the enemy was stated 
in the Commander-in-Chiefs despatch of the 
10th of December as amounting to about 
25,000 men, and they had in all about fifty 
guns, of which thirty-seven were eventually 
captured. The force under General Windham, 
including those in the fort, amounted to about 
1,700 effective bayonets, and he had ten guns. 
It should also be borne in mind that his force, 
small as it was, was composed of detachments 
of various regiments who had been rapidly 
pushed up the country, and had never hitherto 
acted together. He had no cavalry worth 
speaking of. His artillery—although he gave 
credit to the officers and men who worked the 
guns—consisted of ten pieces drawn by bul¬ 
locks, manned by men of different nations; 
and therefore he laboured under great disad¬ 
vantages in this respect, opposed to an enemy 


232 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


who were so numerous and efficient in this 
arm, and who had, moreover, several horsed 
batteries.” 

On the 28th the enemy again attacked the 
position. On the left they were defeated by 
the gallant little band under Colonels Walpole, 
Woodford, and Watson. Colonel Woodford 
was killed by a shot through the head; his 
body was brought in the following day. On 
the right, Brigadier Carthew, of the Madras 
Army, stoutly resisted an overwhelming force 
until nightfall, when he retired into the in- 
trenchment. It was early in the day from 
the defences on the right that Brigadier Wil¬ 
son led his regiment, the 64th, right up to the 
enemy’s guns. Out of sixteen officers and 
180 men who made this daring charge, only 
ten of the former, and a hundred of the 
latter, survived. The valiant old brigadier 
was mortally wounded by a bullet in the 
chest. Major Stirling fell dead while putting 
forth his hand to spike a gun ; and Captains 
B. C. McCrea and W. Morphy fell in like 
manner. I went into Brigadier Wilson’s tent 
with a brother officer, and saw the gallant 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 233 

veteran in the sleep of death. His face 
was placid and calm, and 

“ He lay like a warrior taking his rest.” 

The severity of the conflict which the G4th 
sustained was evident from the wounded con¬ 
dition in which the officers’ horses were found. 
Brigadier Wilson’s grey Arab was shot through 
three places, and was sold for a ridiculous 
price as almost worthless, but he afterwards 
recovered, and proved a treasure to his pur¬ 
chaser. Poor Major Stirling’s bay Arab I 
bought, with a bullet wound in his flank, for 
1,020 rupees, and a splendid little charger he 
was, though cruelly cut about in subsequent 
work. Very mournful were these oft-recurring 
sales by auction of the effects of deceased 
officers. As soon after death and burial as 
possible, all the property was collected by a 
committee of two or three officers, and every¬ 
thing sold except sword and jewellery, which 
were preserved for surviving relations, the 
president of the committee of adjustment 
being charged with the task of communicating 
with survivors. 


234 


THE STORY OF CA.WNPORE. 


When the overpowered detachments were 
compelled to retire into the cover of the in- 
trenchment, apart from the seriousness of the 
temporary repulse, the scene presented was 
ludicrous in the extreme. I shall not soon 
forget the spectacle which, in company with 
Mr. Sherer and Mr. Power,* I witnessed from 
the fort. The sound of the retreat threw a 
panic into the whole neighbourhood. Prom 
the native city came merchants with their 
families and treasure, seeking the protection 
of the fort; from the field, helter-skelter, in 
dire confusion, broken companies of English 
regiments, guns, sailors, soldiers, camels, 
elephants, bullock-hackeries with officers’ bag¬ 
gage, all crowding at the gates for entrance. 
Ponderous and uncivil elephants bumped their 
unwieldy sides against the gate-posts; and 
good-humoured tars joked and chaffed freely 
upon the status quo . Some Sikhs who were 
within the wall patted the fresh arrivals on 


* This gentleman, and his brother, Mr. John Power, 
C.S., greatly distinguished themselves at Mynpoorie, by 
holding that post against the rebels, and thereby saving a 
large amount of Government treasure. 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 


235 


the back, saying, “ Don’t fear ! don’t fear ! ” 
“ Ah, and sure they were too strong for us 1 ” 
was the reply, in rich Hibernian brogue. 
Once within the walls, all was soon set square, 
and the Gwalior Contingent might have pep¬ 
pered upon us for weeks in vain. We had 
heaps of ammunition, guns of all calibre, and 
abundance of provision. There were some 
alarmists who carried the rumour that a 
second Cawnpore garrison was going to be 
sacrificed; but very, very different was the 
position of General Windham from that of Sir 
Hugh Wheeler five months previously. 

All that night and the next day the enemy 
pillaged the native city, and kept up a sharp 
fire on the intrenchment, making the hospitals 
their favourite mark. On the evening of the 
29th, Sir Colin Campbell, who was on his 
return from Lucknow, crossed the bridge of 
boats under the shelling of the enemy, and 
on the following day, under the cover of Cap¬ 
tain Peel’s far-famed guns, he brought over 
his long retinue of wounded and rescued ones, 
two thousand in number. 

There was one missing whose absence filled 


236 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


all with regret. Havelock was no more; w^orn 
out with the toils of his unparalleled achieve¬ 
ments, he was ill when Sir Colin reached 
Lucknow, and his remains were left at the 
Alumbagh, forty-eight miles from Cawnpore. 
The telegraph bore homeward in brief sen¬ 
tences the two items of intelligence, in which 
joy and sorrow were entwined, to all the na¬ 
tion :—“ Lucknow relieved ”—“ Sir Henry 
Havelock dead.” 

In a despatch of the Commander-in-Chief 
to the Governor-General, Sir Colin wrote thus 
of the transactions at Cawnpore during his 
absence:— 

“ I desire to make my acknowledgment of 
the great difficulties in which Major-General 
Windham, C.B., was placed during the opera¬ 
tions he describes in his despatch, and to 
recommend him, and the officers wdiom he 
notices as having rendered him assistance, to 
your Lordship’s protection and good offices. 

“ I may mention, in conclusion, that Major- 
General Windham is ignorant of the contents 
of my despatch of 2nd December, and that I 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 237 

am prompted to take this step solely as a 
matter of justice to the Major-General and the 
officers concerned.” 

The Governor-General in Council gave im¬ 
mediate publicity to this despatch, appending 
to it the statement:— 

“ Major-General Windham’s reputation as a 
leader of conspicuous bravery and coolness, 
and the reputation of the gallant force which 
he commanded, will have lost nothing from an 
accidental omission such as General Sir Colin 
Campbell has occasion to regret. 

“ But the Govern or-General in Council will 
not fail to bring to the notice of the Govern¬ 
ment in England, the opinion formed by his 
Excellency of the difficulties against which 
Major-General Windham, with the officers and 
men under his orders, had to contend.” 

The feeling of sympathy with General Wind¬ 
ham, under the reverse he had sustained 
through the overpowering superiority of the 
foe, was universal throughout the camp; none 
Q 


238 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


ever doubted his great personal prowess, and his 
gentlemanly manners rendered him a favourite 
with all, both officers and privates. His capa¬ 
cities for command are believed to be great, 
and no doubt, when opportunity serves, it will 
be found, that the overboldness which soldiers 
so much love is sustained in him by a needful 
amount of prudence and caution. 

Sir Colin Campbell submitted to the hostile 
possession of the native city until he had 
relieved himself of the incumbrance caused by 
his Lucknow protegees. 

On the 1st of December, I was appointed 
by the Commanderdn-Chief, commandant of 
the Cawnpore police. This force was raised 
by enlistment among the natives, and consists 
of a hundred cavalry and four hundred in¬ 
fantry. They are trained to the use of the 
musket, and their duties involve the mainte¬ 
nance of order in the native cities, and military 
service when called thereto. At the time of 
the departure of the Lucknow people for Alla¬ 
habad, I was sent down the road to recon¬ 
noitre, as there was a rumour that some of the 
Gwalior men were hovering about with the 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 239 

intention of waylaying the convoy. I started 
at sunset with fifty of my sowars, and after a 
sharp ride of twenty-four miles, to the Pandoo- 
Nuddy bridge, halted there for an hour, but 
finding all clear returned, and reached Cawn- 
pore, after a gallop of forty-eight miles, at 
4 a.m. I had two illustrations that night 
of the peculiar risk attaching to the command 
of native forces in these troublesome times. 
In the first instance, the dak driver quietly 
surrendered the mails to us without firing a 
shot; and subsequently, as we were quietly 
cantering round a sudden turn of the road, 
we received a volley from the vanguard of the 
escort. It appeared that they had received no 
intimation that we were acting as their pio¬ 
neers. I rode up, and speedily made it 
evident that we were not rebels; having first 
happily prevented my men from returning the 
fire. Had they brought down any of the 
escort, it would have cost me dear. One horse 
wounded, was the only casualty they inflicted 
on us. 

The procession of women, children, and 
wounded, riding in government waggons, ex- 
Q 2 


240 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

tended throughout the length of five miles; 
and with the exception of the occasional inter¬ 
change of a word or two with some friends 
among the officers, we were careful not to dis¬ 
turb the luxuriant stillness enjoyed by that 
large party, who were at last, after protracted 
bombardment, and the long and anxious sus¬ 
pense between life and death, homeward- 
bound. 

Amongst those who returned from Luck¬ 
now was my friend Lieut. Delafosse, reduced to 
a most emaciated condition from the continued 
effects of fever and dysentery. From these, 
however, he soon recovered, and after all the 
manifold escapes he has had, I trust is des¬ 
tined to attain that distinction in the service 
of his country which he as much deserves, as 
he eagerly covets. 

As soon as the Commander-in-Chief had 
parted with his long convoy to Allahabad, 
he paid his attentions to the Gwalior Contin¬ 
gent. On the 6th of December he opened 
upon them, General Windham commencing 
the attack. They speedily evacuated the 
city, and took to flight. They were pursued 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 


241 


to the fifteenth milestone on the Calpee road, 
leaving behind them their camp, seventeen 
guns, and a large quantity of ammunition. 
Two days afterwards, Sir Hope Grant gave 
them the decisive coup at Bithoor, and cap¬ 
tured fifteen more of their guns, without the 
loss of a single man. 


242 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

APPOINTMENT TO COMMAND OF NATIVE POLICE—ADMINIS¬ 
TRATION OF JUSTICE—FIGHT AT BHOGNEEPORE—THREE 
WEEKS IN HOSPITAL. 


The closing days of the eventful 1857, found 
me busily engaged in my police duties. Some¬ 
times out to escort treasure from the sur¬ 
rounding districts, and sometimes to arrest 
mutineers lurking in the villages adjacent to 
us. By the indefatigable exertions of Mr. 
Sherer, the magistrate of Cawnpore, all the 
arrears of revenue from the district were 
collected; and the judge at the station was 
kept in pretty constant occupation by the 
arrests we made. The charges of undue 
severity that have been made against the 
executive in relation to the treatment of cap- 


THE STORY OP CAWNPORE. 


243 


tured rebels, by no means attach to Mr.-, 

whose leniency and forbearance were prover¬ 
bial. The administration of justice in India 
during the last century, has doubtless been 
often diversified by curious anomalies, arising 
sometimes from the hard-mouthed swearing 
of native witnesses; and at other times from 
the inexperience of the officials, and their 
imperfect acquaintance with the vernacular. 
Though at its worst, British judicature has 
been an inestimable benefit in comparison 
with the unscrupulous tyranny, reckless extor¬ 
tion, and total disregard either of justice or 
of life which prevailed in the native adminis¬ 
tration. In the provinces, the judge is supreme 
in his own court, and has none of the diffi¬ 
culties that occasionally arise in the English 
courts from a refractory jury. At one of the 
stations in which I was resident, a native 
woman was tried on her own confession for 
the murder of her daughter, a child six or 
seven years old. She alleged that she had 
suffocated the girl by sitting upon her, and had 
then thrown the body into the canal. The 
culprit was sentenced to be hanged, and 



244 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


accordingly was hanged; after walking up to 
the gibbet without the least trepidation, and 
with the utmost nonchalance. The crime and 
its penalty had begun to be forgotten, when, 
to the amazement of the community, the child 
was found walking about the station inquiring 
for her mother. It turned out that the water 
had revived her from what was suspended 
animation, and some villagers had extricated 
her from the canal, and having taken care of 
her a few days sent her home again. Although 
the crime was murder in intention, as it was 
not so in fact, the judge would hardly have 
passed such a sentence could he have antici¬ 
pated this result. Although infanticide is 
now abolished, and very infrequent in British 
India, children are often murdered for the 
sake of the bangles which all of decent 
parentage wear upon the arms; these are 
usually of silver, though in some cases of gold. 

Before the re-adjustment of the civil power, 
something very like Lynch-law was in force 
in the Cawnpore district, and as no official 
executioner had been appointed, the service 
of the gibbet was deputed to the soldiers. 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


245 


Rumours having reached the authorities that 
a certain zemindar in the district had been 
guilty of the murder of an entire English 
family, during the disturbed state of the neigh¬ 
bourhood—the suspected criminal and his two 
brothers were seized and brought to trial 
before one of the Special Commissioners. The 
victims of this assassination consisted of the 
household of some official connected with the 
works on the railway; as they lived in a retired 
spot, the murderer had put them all to death 
and seized their property. In the first instance 
the culprit loudly asserted his innocence, but 
such damnatory evidence was adduced, that 
he made ample confession, and was sentenced 
to death. Some artillerymen, who were spec¬ 
tators of the trial, volunteered their services to 
give effect to the verdict. They tied the 
wretch’s hands behind him, and lifted him 
upon the shoulders of a comrade who was to 
act as a platform for the proceedings. One 
of them then climbed the tree and tied the 
rope to a stout branch, when the soldier 
beneath walked away. The man in the tree 
wishing to expedite the end of the criminal, 


246 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 


jumped upon him—the rope broke and both 
came to the ground. The second attempt, 
however, proved successful. Scarcely a day 
passed for a month or two after our re-pos¬ 
session of Cawnpore, without the execution 
of some convicted scoundrel. The first regu¬ 
larly appointed hangman, was a tall fellow 
of the mehter caste, who received the appoint¬ 
ment because he was supposed to have been 
free from all participation in the murders of 
the Nana. About a fortnight after he had 
taken office, rumours were in circulation that 
his wife had in her possession trinkets of 
jewellery which had been stripped from some 
of the murdered women. Investigation ensued, 
which terminated in the conviction of Jack 
Ketch, and he was suspended from his own 
gibbet. 

Another of the culprits was a little wizened 
Moslem, who had kept an hotel, managed after 
the European fashion, in our cantonments. 
He had raised a troop of horse for the Nana, 
and served against his former customers. 
After the triumphant entrance of Havelock, 
this villain was reduced to the greatest indi- 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


247 


gence, and applied to the officials at Euttehpore 
for employment, pleading his loyalty as the 
ground of qualification. 

Mr. Probyn telegraphed to Mr. Sherer, 
asking if this man was known either favourably 
or unfavourably at Cawnpore; his antecedents 
were duly reported, with the request that he 
might be put en route for the scene of his 
former adventures. He was placed under 
escort—tried and hanged. 

Among my policemen there was one whose 
conduct thoroughly exemplified Eastern per¬ 
fidy, and skill in its concealment. Buldeo 
Singh had formerly been in the Guide Corps. 
As he was free from all imputations against 
his fidelity, he was made resildar of the 
Police cavalry. This man was my only 
confidant in the execution of surprises, which 
were planned for the arrest of notorious 
mutineers lurking in the district. It most 
unaccountably came to pass that we were 
continually being foiled in the attempt to lay 
hands upon well-known delinquents of whose 
whereabouts tidings had been received. In 
the midst of all our attempts to detect the 


248 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

treachery that had so evidently perverted the 
best laid schemes, it suddenly developed itself. 
A charge had been lodged in the magistrate s 
office, by some native, against a neighbouring 
zemindar; it consisted mainly of injuries done 
to the accuser, but also involved the defendant 
in implication with the mutiny. The zemindar 
was cited to appear before the magistrates to 
give account of himself. To ward off, if pos¬ 
sible, the threatening difficulties, he unbosomed 
himself to Buldeo Singh, the resildar of Police, 
who might justly be supposed to possess influ¬ 
ence enough to extricate a friend from a scrape. 
Buldeo Singh forthwith fabricated a letter from 
Tantia Topee, addressed to a cloth merchant 
in the native city, thanking him for some 
friendly offices, and requesting an exact account 
of the British forces in the garrison. The 
resildar gave his forgery to a sowar in the 
police, pointed out to him the accuser of the 
zemindar, and bribed him to say that he had 
found the treasonable document in that man's 
possession. The day of trial for the original 
accusation came, and it was diversified by 
this counter-charge, which looked all the 


THE STORY OE CAWNPORE. 249 


more grave as proceeding from the autho¬ 
rities. 

The magistrate, however, had penetration 
enough to suspect some plotting—the sowar 
was arrested and revealed the scheme of his 
superior. Buldeo Singh was brought to trial, 
found to be in friendly communication with 
all the suspected characters in the district, 
and as the meed of his perfidy, was sentenced 
to three years’ imprisonment in the convict 
hulk upon the river. Immediately after this 
denouement we cleared the force of all these 
speckled birds and enlisted none but Sikhs— 
then the police became thoroughly effective. 
All December and January were occupied in 
the arrest of rebels and the escort of treasure 
from the adjacent districts. In one of these 
excursions we followed the tracks of Sir Hope 
Grant’s successful pursuits of the Gwalior 
Contingent. The road was strewn for miles 
with remnants of clothing, fragments of 
weapons, and the varied materials of battle. In 
one spot there was lying a whole cartload of 
ammunition pouches, signal evidences of the 
extravagant profusion of war. 


250 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

On the 3d of February, while sitting at 
mess with the judge, the magistrate, and his 
assistants, an order came to go out with my 
men and join Colonel Vaughan Maxwell, who, 
with the 88 th Regiment and a couple of guns, 
was out on the Calpee-road to repress the 
incursions made by the mutineers upon the 
villages on our side of the Jumna. I came 
up with the encampment at Bhogneepore, six 
miles from Calpee; a picket of my sowars was 
thrown out by the Colonel's directions to the 
distance of six hundred yards, so that we 
might not be surprised. Afterwards Colonel 
Maxwell, Mr. Martin, C.S., and I, with an 
escort of twenty men, rode down to within a 
mile of the Calpee guns; we got into some 
conversation with the boatmen at the river, 
and gathered from them the strength of the 
rebels there. On account of the great dis¬ 
tance to which they would have to retreat to 
reach the river, it seemed to us very impro¬ 
bable that they would attack us, but we were 
out in our reckoning. At 3 a.m. one of the 
sowars roused me to say that the picket was 
being attacked. We instantly turned out; 


THE STOlir OF CAWNPORE. 


251 


in the first instance there were two companies 
of the 88th and my sowars, but we soon found 
this an inadequate force, consequently Colonel 
Maxwell brought up three more companies and 
two nine-pounders. 

Until daylight came to our help it was 
sufficient to send out a few skirmishers. As 
soon as we could see distinctly we advanced 
upon our enemy and drove them from village 
to village, till they reached the last hamlet on 
the Cawnpore side of the Jumna. I was then 
ordered to charge with my sowars, and we got 
into close quarters. The raviney state of the 
ground precluded us from such a clearance as 
we might otherwise have made of them, 
though that something was done is plain 
enough from the fact that the officers of the 
88th counted eighty sepoy corpses. 

The rebel force was estimated at about 
1,500 in number, and was a part of the 
formidable company of mutineers that con¬ 
tinued to occupy Calpee until Sir Hugh Rose 
exterminated them. Very slight injury was 
done to the 88th Regiment; one private was 
killed, and one slightly wounded. Five or 


252 


THE STOUT OF CAWNPORE. 


six of the sowars were also wounded. My 
poor little charger was shot through the back, 
and had also an ugly bayonet wound in the 
mouth, and his master with similar fortune 
carried an extensive damage in the thigh, in 
the shape of a bullet wound. 

When I rode up to Colonel Maxwell, he 
kindly ordered me off my horse and into a 
dhooly, when the doctor sent me into camp, 
and thence to Cawnpore. 

Carried by eight bearers with pillows under 
the leg, thirty-two miles were accomplished 
without a change, when, at a distance of six¬ 
teen miles from Cawnpore, Mr. Sherer’s ser¬ 
vants met me with his carriage, and I was 
taken to his hospitable house and placed 
under the care of Dr. Tresidder, the skilful 
surgeon in the civil department of the station. 
I was accompanied on the road by the 
wounded sowars for an escort, and the 
wounded charger, who, however, was conva¬ 
lescent before his master. Upon examination 
it was found that the bone of the leg was un¬ 
touched, although under the most favourable 
circumstances the perforation of the thigh by 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 253 

a bullet is by no means a desirable experience. 
I have often heard my brother officers covet 
the honour of a wound. Some would openly 
express the desire for a pretty extensive gash 
in the face; and in the abstract, there is no 
doubt to a soldier much credit in the seams 
and scars and marks of war, but the reality 
brings many an hour of lingering agony, and 
the stage of convalescence so much wearying 
ennui, that it is, all things considered, honour 
bought at a good price. 

During three weeks I was now once more 
shut up with very contracted sources of amuse¬ 
ment, and mainly dependent upon the visits of 
friends for occupation. I shall always have 
to remember with thankfulness the kind atten¬ 
tions of Mr. Slierer, and of Mr. Power and 
Mr. Willock, his assistants, of the Bengal Civil 
Service. The last-named gentleman was one 
of Havelock’s volunteer corps; his feats of arms 
were patent to all the force, who asserted that he 
had mistaken his profession and ought without 
doubt to have been a soldier. These and other 
friends kept up constant visits to my bedside, 


R 


254 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


until from the recumbent posture I rose to a 
couple of crutches, presently to crutch and 
stick ; then stick promoted, vice crutch ; and 
at last after four weeks’ interim once more in 
the saddle bearing my fourth wound. 

While I was confined to my bed I received 
one day a visit from a most eccentric indi¬ 
vidual who had been on service with the Agra 
volunteers. Deservedly distinguished as this 
gentleman is in that branch of the Civil ser¬ 
vice in which he usually moves, his military 
adventures form a singular episode in his life. 
Martial in bearing, and unimpeachable as to 
courage, he was chiefly known for his indomi¬ 
table fun and practical joking. The morning 
call in question he made in the saddle; having 
spurred his charger up the steps of the bunga¬ 
low, he entered my room and trotted round 
the bed. I, in the awful agony of a man who 
dreads the thought of a touch on the coverlet, 
and he, threatening to clear the bed at a leap. 
In vain did I expostulate until he had satisfied 
his strange propensity for a joke. When 
Cawnpore lost this distinguished visitor, his 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 255 

departure was characteristic. Three or four 
of us were standing talking together, when he 
suddenly discharged his revolver in immediate 
proximity to our ears, and shouted “ Hurrah 
for Calcutta.” 



256 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

VISIT TO SIR WILLIAM PEEL—HIS LAMENTED DEATH—INTRO¬ 
DUCTION TO GOVERNOR-GENERAL—INVALIDED HOME- 
SCHOOLFELLOWS LOST IN THE MUTINY—INDIA’S FUTURE. 

One circumstance which it will be impos¬ 
sible that I should ever forget, is a visit I paid 
to that hero of the naval service, Sir William 
Peel. After rendering invaluable assistance 
with his far-famed artillery, in the assault 
upon Lucknow, he was shot by a musket- 
ball in the thigh, and while suffering from his 
wound he caught the small-pox, and was 
brought into Cawnpore suffering severely from 
that fell disease. He was taken to the resi¬ 
dence of the chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Moore, 
and that excellent clergyman and his lady 
did their utmost to alleviate his sad condi- 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


257 


tion. But medical science and Christian 
kindness were both unavailing, and in this 
scion of a distinguished family, England lost 
one of the noblest of her sons. Upon the 
march from Lucknow, Sir William had suf¬ 
fered greatly from the paucity of medical 
comforts, and he entered Cawnpore in a most 
exhausted state, saying mournfully, “If I 
were in England, the Queen would send her 
own physician to look after me; here I can 
scarcely get any attention/'’ It was a sorrow- 
ful sight to see the grey Arab picketed outside 
the Chaplain's house, and seeming to sympa¬ 
thise with the master whom he had so faith¬ 
fully served, who was rapidly sinking within 
doors. There can be no doubt that when 
Sir William Peel was brought into Cawnpore, 
he was already beyond the reach of human 
skill; and in a few days a couple of sincere 
mourners followed to the grave, in his remains, 
the ashes of as brave a spirit as ever breathed. 
I never could exactly understand why a public 
funeral was not accorded to the memory of 
one who had so eminently distinguished him¬ 
self in his country’s service. But among the 


258 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


conditions in tlie midst of which the honours 
of war are sought, the paltry distinctions of 
sepulchral pomp must be despised, alike by 
the highest in command, and the humblest 
in service. No fresh lustre could have been 
added to the name of Peel by the most 
elaborate of funereal rites. Yet it did dis¬ 
appoint me, and that not a little, to witness 
the privacy of his interment. One consolation 
remains : whether her sons sleep in the hasty 
grave of the battle-field, in the pathless waters 
of that huge sepulchre, the ocean, or in the 
marble magnificence of Westminster Abbey, 
England is always faithful to their memory, 
who fall nobly doing her work ; and few will 
be longer held in the grateful recollection and 
high esteem of all classes in the state than the 
much-lamented Sir William Peel. 

On the occasion of the opening of the East 
Indian railway at Futtehpore, I had the honour 
of repeating to Lord Canning the account of 
my numerous escapes, and of laying before his 
Lordship the claims of Dirigbijah Singh to 
the consideration of the Government. The 
Governor-General was pleased to listen to my 


THE ST011Y OF CAWNPORE. 


259 


statements with great kindness and cour¬ 
tesy. 

This enterprise, the Grand Trunk Railway, 
has already become a great fact in Indian life. 
It is completed from Calcutta to Raneegunge, 
a distance of one hundred and forty miles; 
and again from Allahabad to Cawnpore, one 
hundred and twenty-six miles. In the de¬ 
velopment of commercial resources, and the 
facilitations of the transport of troops, it is 
almost impossible to over-estimate its ultimate 
importance. The difficulties of engineering 
are for the most part moderate; labour is 
abundant, and the tract of country traversed 
tolerably level. The bridge over the Sone, 
and the cuttings through the Raj Mahal hills, 
will constitute the most prominent works on 
the line. The piers for the former of these 
undertakings rest on foundations ninety feet 
below the bed of the river. The slow-going 
natives look with profound astonishment upon 
the feats of the iron horse, and use no moderate 
epithets to express their wonderment. 

Soon after my return from Futtehpore, 
sundry symptoms of a refractory disposition 


260 THE STORY OP CAWNPORE. 

in my wounds led to a consultation, and the 
decided opinion of Dr. Tresidder, that a 
furlough, or sick certificate, must be obtained, 
directed me homeward. Travelling by horse- 
dak in the neighbourhood of Benares, we 
were detained by a detachment of troops, on 
account of the report that a party of rebels 
were at mischief further down the road. At 
the next station the Government horses were 
gone, and the huts blazing. But for the 
friendly detention we must have fallen into 
the hands of the incendiaries, who had only 
retired from their devastations half-an-hour 
before our arrival. Thus one more escape 
was added to the numerous instances in which 
a wonderful Providence has spared my life. 
Calcutta was reached in safety, and, at length, 
old England. One of my first visits was to 
my excellent tutor, Dr. Greig, of Walthamstow 
House, who, with an honourable pride, re¬ 
counted the performances of many of his 
former pupils, who had figured conspicuously 
in the recent struggle. We mourned together 
the loss of not a few of my own class-mates. 
Such were:— 


THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 


261 


Quintin Battye, of the Guide Corps, who 
lied at Delhi, with the words upon his lips 
“ Dulce et decorum estpro patria mori.” 

Tandy, who also fell at Delhi. 

Angelo, one of our Cawnpore men who was 
shot in the intrenchment. 

Charles Boileau, who was killed by Fuzil 
Ally, the celebrated dacoit, who wrought great 
havoc in Oude. 

Lestock Boileau, and Donaldson, of the 
Engineers, who were killed in Burmah. 

And Patrick Grant, who fell at Lucknow. 

British India is now once more tranquil, and 
the heads of the mutiny are nearly all crushed. 
The wretched Nana, Azimoolah, and Juwallah 
Pershaud are the principal delinquents not yet 
brought to justice. No doubt a righteous 
retribution will follow them to the thickest 
jungle or the steepest mountain fastness to 
which they cling, and their violent dealings 
shall come down on their own pates. 

What may be the results incident upon the 
mutiny of 1857 no sagacity can predict. The 
destinies of the two hundred millions of in¬ 
habitants of our vast empire in the East form 


13, ft- 

262 THE STORY OF CAWNPORE. 

no longer a merely class interest. They have 
acknowledged the sceptre of Queen Victoria, 
and have become constituents of the great 
British commonwealth. Under the sanctions 
of unrestricted commerce, the vast natural 
resources of the land will multiply beyond all 
conception ; hideous superstitions will give 
place to a pure faith; righteous laws will 
rectify tyrannic abuses; science will clear the 
jungle and irrigate the desert. There is room 
enough here for all the adventurous heroism 
and indefatigable perseverance that ever made 
the name of England great. The world looks 
with astonishment upon the fact that a tithe 
of the human race is entrusted to the tiny island 
in the northern seas, and wonders for the 
issue. In His own time, the God of the whole 
earth will show it. 


THE END. 


B. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL. 




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